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Avoiding an uncertain catastrophe: climate change mitigation under risk and wealth heterogeneity

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  • Thomas C. Brown

    (U.S. Forest Service)

  • Stephan Kroll

    (Colorado State University)

Abstract

For environmental problems such as climate change, uncertainty about future conditions makes it difficult to know what the goal of mitigation efforts should be, and inequality among the affected parties makes it hard for them to know how much they each should do toward reaching the goal. We examine the effects of scientific uncertainty and wealth inequality in experiments where subjects decide how much to contribute toward reducing a common threat. We also explore how the framing of uncertainty affects collective action. Our results suggest that uncertainty lowers contributions, but contributions remain surprisingly high even in treatments with a variable loss probability, where such behavior is individually suboptimal (and where the underlying game is a prisoner’s dilemma). Further, we find that the characterization of uncertainty is crucial and that inequality need not lower contributions at all.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas C. Brown & Stephan Kroll, 2017. "Avoiding an uncertain catastrophe: climate change mitigation under risk and wealth heterogeneity," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 141(2), pages 155-166, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:141:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s10584-016-1889-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s10584-016-1889-5
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    Cited by:

    1. Waichman, Israel & Requate, Till & Karde, Markus & Milinski, Manfred, 2021. "Challenging conventional wisdom: Experimental evidence on heterogeneity and coordination in avoiding a collective catastrophic event," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    2. Adriana AnaMaria Davidescu & Simona-Andreea Apostu & Andreea Paul, 2020. "Exploring Citizens’ Actions in Mitigating Climate Change and Moving toward Urban Circular Economy. A Multilevel Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-46, September.
    3. Davide Bazzana & Massimiliano Rizzati & Emanuele Ciola & Enrico Turco & Sergio Vergalli, 2023. "Warming the MATRIX: a Climate Assessment under Uncertainty and Heterogeneity," Working Papers 2023.09, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    4. Bilancini, Ennio & Boncinelli, Leonardo & Nardi, Chiara & Pizziol, Veronica, 2024. "Cooperation is unaffected by the threat of severe adverse events in public goods games," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    5. Ilona Reindl, 2022. "Wealth and Vulnerability to Climate Change: An Experimental Study on Burden Sharing among Heterogeneous Agents," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 82(4), pages 791-823, August.
    6. Abdul H. Kidwai & Angela C. M. de Oliveira, 2020. "Threshold and Group Size Uncertainty in Common-pool Resources: An Experimental Study," Public Finance Review, , vol. 48(6), pages 751-777, November.
    7. Cloos, Janis & Greiff, Matthias, 2021. "Combating climate change: Is the option to exploit a public good a barrier for reaching critical thresholds? Experimental evidence," MPRA Paper 107144, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Aseem Mahajan & Reuben Kline & Dustin Tingley, 2022. "Collective Risk and Distributional Equity in Climate Change Bargaining," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 66(1), pages 61-90, January.
    9. Todd L. Cherry & Stephan Kroll & David M. McEvoy, 2023. "Climate cooperation with risky solar geoengineering," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 176(10), pages 1-14, October.

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