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Does scarcity exacerbate the tragedy of the commons? Evidence from fishers’ experimental responses

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Author Info
Maldonado, Jorge H.
Moreno-Sanchez, Rocio del Pilar

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Abstract

Economic Experimental Games (EEG) have challenged the theoretical prediction showing that individuals balance own and collective interests when making decisions that deviate away from suboptimal Nash equilibrium. However, few studies have analyzed whether these deviations from Nash equilibrium towards social optimum are affected as the stock of resource changes. Performing EEG with real fishers we test the hypothesis that behavior of participants –measured as relative deviations from Nash equilibrium- differs under a situation of abundance versus a situation of scarcity. The design of our EEG is based on a profit maximization model that incorporates intertemporal effects of aggregated extraction. Our findings show that in a situation of scarcity, players over extract the resource making decisions above the Nash equilibrium, obtaining less profit, mining the others-regarding interest, and exacerbating the tragedy of the commons. This result challenges previous general findings from the EEG literature. When individuals face abundance of the resource, however, they deviate downward from the individualistic and myopic behavior prediction. This phenomenon of private inefficient over exploitation is corrected when management strategies are introduced in the game, which underlines the importance of institutions.

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Paper provided by American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association) in its series 2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida with number 6528.

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Date of creation: 2008
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Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea08:6528

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Keywords: Resource /Energy Economics and Policy;

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Cardenas, Juan-Camilo, 2004. "Norms from outside and from inside: an experimental analysis on the governance of local ecosystems," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(3-4), pages 229-241, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Herr, Andrew & Gardner, Roy & Walker, James M., 1997. "An Experimental Study of Time-Independent and Time-Dependent Externalities in the Commons," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 77-96, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Juan Camilo Cardenas & John K. Stranlund & Cleve E. Willis, 2002. "Economic inequality and burden-sharing in the provision of local environmental quality," Artefactual Field Experiments 0026, The Field Experiments Website. [Downloadable!]
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  4. Juan Camilo Cardenas, 2001. "How Do Groups Solve Local Commons Dilemmas? Lessons from Experimental Economics in the Field," Artefactual Field Experiments 0016, The Field Experiments Website. [Downloadable!]
  5. van Dijk, Frans & van Winden, Frans, 1997. "Dynamics of social ties and local public good provision," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 323-341, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Keser, Claudia, 1996. "Voluntary contributions to a public good when partial contribution is a dominant strategy," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 359-366, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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