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The Survival of the Conformist: Social Pressure and Renewable Resource Management

Author

Listed:
  • Alessandro Tavoni

    (Advanced School of Economics at the University of Venice)

  • Maja Schlüter

    (Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries)

  • Simon Levin

    (Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University)

Abstract

This paper examines the role of pro-social behavior as a mechanism for the establishment and maintenance of cooperation in resource use under variable social and environmental conditions. By coupling resource stock dynamics with social dynamics concerning compliance to a social norm prescribing non-excessive resource extraction in a common pool resource (CPR), we show that when reputational considerations matter and a sufficient level of social stigma affects the violators of a norm, sustainable outcomes are achieved. We find large parameter regions where norm-observing and norm-violating types coexist, and analyze to what extent such coexistence depends on the environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Alessandro Tavoni & Maja Schlüter & Simon Levin, 2010. "The Survival of the Conformist: Social Pressure and Renewable Resource Management," Working Papers 2010.127, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    • Handle: RePEc:fem:femwpa:2010.127
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Currarini, Sergio & Marchiori, Carmen & Tavoni, Alessandro, 2016. "Network economics and the environment: insights and perspectives," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 63951, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Andries Richter & Johan Grasman, 2013. "The Transmission of Sustainable Harvesting Norms When Agents Are Conditionally Cooperative," Working Papers 2013.80, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    3. Maja Schl�ter & Alessandro Tavoni & Simon Levin, 2014. "Robustness of norm-driven cooperation in the commons to environmental variability," GRI Working Papers 146, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    4. Tavoni, Alessandro & Levin, Simon, 2014. "Managing the climate commons at the nexus of ecology, behaviour and economics," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60823, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Sergio Currarini & Carmen Marchiori & Alessandro Tavoni, 2016. "Network Economics and the Environment: Insights and Perspectives," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 65(1), pages 159-189, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cooperation; Social Norm; Ostracism; Common Pool Resource; Evolutionary Game Theory; Replicator Equation; Agent-based Simulation; Coupled Socio-resource Dynamics;

    JEL classification:

    • C73 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Stochastic and Dynamic Games; Evolutionary Games
    • Q20 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - General
    • D70 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - General

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