A Replication of “Financial Rewards Do Not Stimulate Co‐Production: Evidence From Two Experiments”

ABSTRACT Despite growing interest in the motivations behind co‐production, uncertainty persists regarding the effectiveness of financial incentives, particularly in non‐Western contexts. This study replicates Voorberg et al. experiments within Chinese urban settings to test their generalizability across cultural contexts and co‐production types. Through two experiments that mirror the original study's design, our results reveal that modest financial rewards consistently enhance willingness to engage in co‐commissioning, with higher rewards yielding no additional gains. Conversely, co‐delivery shows minimal response to monetary incentives, with a marginal effect emerging only at higher reward levels. These findings challenge the universality of both the “economic incentives hypothesis” and the “crowding‐out hypothesis,” suggesting that incentives' efficacy varies by co‐production stage. By extending the original study to a collectivist, state‐led governance context, this research enriches co‐production theory with stage‐specific and cross‐cultural insights, while offering practical guidance for policymakers in non‐Western urban environments to tailor incentive strategies for citizen engagement.