IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/uwp/landec/v79y2003i2p181-197.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is the Tragedy of the Commons Likely? Factors Preventing the Dissipation of Fuelwood Rents in Zimbabwe

Author

Listed:
  • Richard L. Hegan
  • Grant Hauer
  • Martin K. Luckert

Abstract

Although village ‘‘rules’’ classify fuelwood resources in rural Zimbabwe as being open-access, theory suggests that social norms and/or heterogeneity among users prevents rents from being dissipated. Results from a Random Utility Model suggest that social norms and heterogeneous travel costs significantly influence site choice. Welfare measures suggest that there are positive site rents, and that these rents vary because social norms and/or heterogeneity are preventing rent dissipation at some sites more than others. Given the prevalence of social norms and heterogeneity in costs, the ‘‘tragedy-of-thecommons’’ is unlikely.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard L. Hegan & Grant Hauer & Martin K. Luckert, 2003. "Is the Tragedy of the Commons Likely? Factors Preventing the Dissipation of Fuelwood Rents in Zimbabwe," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 79(2), pages 181-197.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwp:landec:v:79:y:2003:i:2:p:181-197
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://le.uwpress.org/cgi/reprint/79/2/181
    Download Restriction: A subscripton is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. MacDonald, Darla Hatton & Weber, Marian, 1998. "Using Participatory Research Methods in Economic Research," Staff Paper Series 24109, University of Alberta, Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology.
    2. Cheung, Steven N S, 1970. "The Structure of a Contract and the Theory of a Non-exclusive Resource," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 13(1), pages 49-70, April.
    3. James A. Wilson, 1990. "Fishing for Knowledge," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 66(1), pages 12-29.
    4. H. Scott Gordon, 1954. "The Economic Theory of a Common-Property Resource: The Fishery," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 62, pages 124-124.
    5. Bromley, Daniel W., 1991. "Testing for common versus private property: Comment," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 92-96, July.
    6. Campbell, Bruce & Mandondo, Alois & Nemarundwe, Nontokozo & Sithole, Bevlyne & De JonG, Wil & Luckert, Marty & Matose, Frank, 2001. "Challenges to Proponents of Common Property Recource Systems: Despairing Voices from the Social Forests of Zimbabwe," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 589-600, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jagger, Pamela, 2014. "Confusion vs. clarity: Property rights and forest use in Uganda," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 32-41.
    2. Campbell, Bruce M. & Gordon, Iain J. & Luckert, Martin K. & Petheram, Lisa & Vetter, Susanne, 2006. "In search of optimal stocking regimes in semi-arid grazing lands: One size does not fit all," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 75-85, November.
    3. Mekonnen, Alemu & Bluffstone, Ramdall, 2008. "Is There a Link between Common Property Forest Management and Private Tree Growing? Evidence of Behavioral Effects from Highland Ethiopia," RFF Working Paper Series dp-08-29-efd, Resources for the Future.
    4. Bluffstone, Randy & Robinson, Elizabeth & Guthiga, Paul, 2013. "REDD+and community-controlled forests in low-income countries: Any hope for a linkage?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 43-52.
    5. Bluffstone, Randy & Robinson, Elizabeth & Guthiga, Paul, 2012. "Deforestation and forest degradation are estimated to account for between 12 percent and 20 percent of annual greenhouse gas emissions. These activities, largely in the developing world, released abou," RFF Working Paper Series dp-12-11-efd, Resources for the Future.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Behnke, Roy, 2018. "Open access and the sovereign commons: A political ecology of pastoral land tenure," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 708-718.
    2. Campbell, Bruce M. & Gordon, Iain J. & Luckert, Martin K. & Petheram, Lisa & Vetter, Susanne, 2006. "In search of optimal stocking regimes in semi-arid grazing lands: One size does not fit all," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 75-85, November.
    3. Kurt E. Schnier & Ronald G. Felthoven, 2013. "Production Efficiency and Exit in Rights-Based Fisheries," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 89(3), pages 538-557.
    4. Sirak Robele Gari & Alice Newton & John D. Icely & Maria Mar Delgado-Serrano, 2017. "An Analysis of the Global Applicability of Ostrom’s Design Principles to Diagnose the Functionality of Common-Pool Resource Institutions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-17, July.
    5. Barnes, Michele L. & Arita, Shawn & Kalberg, Kolter & Leung, PingSun, 2017. "When does it pay to cooperate? Strategic information exchange in the harvest of common-pool fishery resources," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 1-11.
    6. Ayres, Andrew B. & Edwards, Eric C. & Libecap, Gary D., 2018. "How transaction costs obstruct collective action: The case of California's groundwater," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 46-65.
    7. Brown Matthew & Cardiff-Hicks Brianna, 2018. "The Tragedy of the Uncommons," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 14(2), pages 1-22, July.
    8. Anderson, C. Leigh & Swimmer, Eugene, 1997. "Some empirical evidence on property rights of first peoples," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 1-22, May.
    9. Runge, C. Ford, 1981. "Institutions and Common Property Externalities: The Assurance Problem in Economic Development," Faculty and Alumni Dissertations 206835, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    10. Ben Yu & Daigee Shaw & Tsu-Tan Fu & Lawrence Lai, 2000. "Property rights and contractual approach to sustainable development," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 3(3), pages 291-309, September.
    11. Andrew B. Ayres & Eric C. Edwards & Gary D. Libecap, 2017. "How Transaction Costs Obstruct Collective Action: Evidence from California’s Groundwater," NBER Working Papers 23382, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Ronan Congar & Louis Hotte, 2021. "Open Access Versus Restricted Access in a General Equilibrium with Mobile Capital," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 78(3), pages 521-544, March.
    13. Manuel Coelho & Jose Antonio Filipe & Manuel Alberto M. Ferreira & Rui Junqueira Lopes, 2013. "Extinction Revisited: “Allee Effect” and Irreversibility in “Schooling” Fisheries," International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, vol. 3(1), pages 405-405.
    14. Berry, Kevin & Fenichel, Eli P. & Robinson, Brian E., 2019. "The ecological insurance trap," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    15. Gebreegziabher, Zenebe, 2009. "Institutions And Sustainable Land Use: The Case Of Forest And Grazing Lands In Northern Ethiopia," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 51639, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    16. Manuel Coelho & José Filipe & Manuel Ferreira, 2009. "Tragedies on Natural Resources a Commons and Anticommons Approach," Working Papers Department of Economics 2009/21, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Department of Economics, Universidade de Lisboa.
    17. Edwards, Steven F. & Link, Jason S. & Rountree, Barbara P., 2004. "Portfolio management of wild fish stocks," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 317-329, July.
    18. Kasulo, Victor & Perrings, Charles, 2006. "Fishing down the value chain: Biodiversity and access regimes in freshwater fisheries -- the case of Malawi," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 106-114, August.
    19. Gary D. Libecap, 1994. "7. The Conditions for Successful Collective Action," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 6(4), pages 563-592, October.
    20. Elinor Ostrom, 1989. "Microconstitutional Change in Multiconstitutional Political Systems," Rationality and Society, , vol. 1(1), pages 11-50, July.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • Q23 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Forestry

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:uwp:landec:v:79:y:2003:i:2:p:181-197. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://le.uwpress.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.