Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:32:33.979Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Monitoring and punishment networks in an experimental common pool resource dilemma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2019

Ganga Shreedhar Open the ORCID record for Ganga Shreedhar [Opens in a new window] ,
Alessandro Tavoni  and
Carmen Marchiori
Ganga Shreedhar*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological and Behavioural Sciences, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK
Alessandro Tavoni
Affiliation:
Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK Department of Economics, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Carmen Marchiori
Affiliation:
Department of Economics and Management, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

With the aid of a lab experiment, we explored how imperfect monitoring and punishment networks impacted appropriation, punishment and beliefs in a common pool resource appropriation dilemma. We studied the differences between the complete network (with perfect monitoring and punishment, in which everyone can observe and punish everyone else) and two ‘imperfect’ networks (that systematically reduce the number of subjects who could monitor and punish others): the directed and undirected circle networks. We found that free riders were punished in all treatments, but the network topology impacted the type of punishment: the undirected circle induced more severe punishment and prosocial punishment compared to the other two networks. Both imperfect networks were more efficient because the larger punishment capacity available in the complete network elicited higher punishment amount.

Keywords

common pool resourcesmonitoringnetworkspunishment

JEL classification

D62: Externalities Q57: Ecological Economics: Ecosystem Services • Biodiversity Conservation • Bioeconomics • Industrial Ecology C91: Laboratory, Individual Behavior D70: General C92: Laboratory, Group Behavior D83: Search • Learning • Information and Knowledge • Communication • Belief • Unawareness
Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 25 , Special Issue 1: The Economics of Climate Change and Sustainability (Part B) , February 2020 , pp. 66 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agarwal, B (2001) Participatory exclusions, community forestry, and gender: an analysis for South Asia and a conceptual framework. World Development 29, 1623–1648.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderies, JM, Janssen, MA, Bousquet, F, Cardenas, JC, Castillo, D, Lopez, MC, Tobias, R, Vollan, B and Wutich, A (2011) The challenge of understanding decisions in experimental studies of common pool resource governance. Ecological Economics 70, 1571–1579.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andreoni, J (1988) Why free ride? Strategies and learning in public goods experiments. Journal of Public Economics 37, 291–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andreoni, J and Croson, R (2008) Partners versus strangers: random rematching in public goods experiments. In Plott, CR and Smitt, VL (eds), Handbook of Experimental Economics Results, vol. 1. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 776–783.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Apesteguia, J (2006) Does information matter in the commons: experimental evidence. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 60, 55–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Apesteguia, J and Maier-Rigaud, FP (2006) The role of rivalry: public goods versus common-pool resources. Journal of Conflict Resolution 50, 646–663.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanco, M, Engelmann, D, Koch, AK and Normann, HT (2010) Belief elicitation in experiments: is there a hedging problem? Experimental Economics 13, 412–438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bodin, Ö and Crona, BI (2008) Management of natural resources at the community level: exploring the role of social capital and leadership in a rural fishing community. World Development 36, 2763–2779.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bodin, Ö and Crona, BI (2009) The role of social networks in natural resource governance: what relational patterns make a difference? Global Environmental Change 19, 366–374.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boosey, L and Isaac, RM (2016) Asymmetric network monitoring and punishment in public goods experiments. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 132, 26–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyd, R, Gintis, H and Bowles, S (2010) Coordinated punishment of defectors sustains cooperation and can proliferate when rare. Science 328, 617–620.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cardenas, JC (2000) How do groups solve local commons dilemmas? Lessons from experimental economics in the field. Environment, Development and Sustainability 2, 305–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cardenas, JC (2011) Social norms and behavior in the local commons as seen through the lens of field experiments. Environmental and Resource Economics 48, 451–485.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carpenter, J, Kariv, S and Schotter, A (2012) Network architecture, cooperation and punishment in public good experiments. Review of Economic Design 16, 93–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casari, M (2005) On the design of peer punishment experiments. Experimental Economics 8, 107–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casari, M and Luini, L (2012) Peer punishment in teams: expressive or instrumental choice? Experimental Economics 15, 241–259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casari, M and Plott, CR (2003) Decentralized management of common property resources: experiments with a centuries-old institution. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 51, 217–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cason, TN and Gangadharan, L (2015) Promoting cooperation in nonlinear social dilemmas through peer punishment. Experimental Economics 18, 66–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cason, TN and Gangadharan, L (2016) Swords without covenants do not lead to self-governance. Journal of Theoretical Politics 28, 44–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cason, TN and Khan, FU (1999) A laboratory study of voluntary public goods provision with imperfect monitoring and communication. Journal of Development Economics 58, 533–552.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaudhuri, A (2011) Sustaining cooperation in laboratory public goods experiments: a selective survey of the literature. Experimental Economics 14, 47–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, CA and Stoddard, B (2015) Framing and feedback in social dilemmas with partners and strangers. Games 6, 394–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Croson, RTA (1996) Partners and strangers revisited. Economics Letters 53, 25–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Croson, RTA (2000) Thinking like a game theorist: factors affecting the frequency of equilibrium play. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 41, 299–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cryder, CE and Loewenstein, G (2012) Responsibility: the tie that binds. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 1, 441–445.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dana, J, Weber, RA and Kuang, JX (2007) Exploiting moral wiggle room: experiments demonstrating an illusory preference for fairness. Economic Theory 33, 67–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Geest, LR and Stranlund, JK (2019) Defending public goods and common-pool resources. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics 79, 143–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Geest, LR, Stranlund, JK and Spraggon, JM (2017) Deterring poaching of a common pool resource. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 141, 254–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fehr, E and Gächter, S (2000) Cooperation and punishment in public goods experiments. American Economic Review 90, 980–994.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fehr, E and Gächter, S (2002) Altruistic punishment in humans. Nature 415, 137.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fehr, E and Schmidt, K (1999) A theory of fairness, competition, and cooperation. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 114, 817–868.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fehr, E, Fischbacher, U and Kosfeld, M (2005) Neuroeconomic foundations of trust and social preferences: initial evidence. American Economic Review 95, 346–351.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fischbacher, U (2007) z-Tree: Zurich toolbox for ready-made economic experiments. Experimental Economics 10, 171–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischbacher, U and Gächter, S (2010) Social preferences, beliefs, and the dynamics of free riding in public goods experiments. American Economic Review 100, 541–556.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischer, P, Krueger, JI, Greitemeyer, T, Vogrincic, C, Kastenmüller, A, Frey, D, Heene, M, Wicher, M and Kainbacher, M (2011) The bystander-effect: a meta-analytic review on bystander intervention in dangerous and non-dangerous emergencies. Psychological Bulletin 137, 517–537.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fosgaard, TR, Hansen, LG and Wengström, E (2014) Understanding the nature of cooperation variability. Journal of Public Economics 120, 134–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frackenpohl, G, Hillenbrand, A and Kube, S (2016) Leadership effectiveness and institutional frames. Experimental Economics 19, 842–863.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frank, RH, Gilovich, T and Regan, DT (1993) Does studying economics inhibit cooperation? Journal of Economic Perspectives 7, 159–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frey, BS and Meier, S (2004) Social comparisons and pro-social behavior: testing ‘conditional cooperation’ in a field experiment. American Economic Review 94, 1717–1722.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gächter, S and Renner, E (2010) The effects of (incentivized) belief elicitation in public goods experiments. Experimental Economics 13, 364–377.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gächter, S, Renner, E and Sefton, M (2008) The long-run benefits of punishment. Science 322, 1510–1510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gächter, S, Kölle, F and Quercia, S (2017) Reciprocity and the tragedies of maintaining and providing the commons. Nature Human Behaviour 1, 650–656.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greitemeyer, T and Mügge, D (2013) Rational bystanders. British Journal of Social Psychology 52, 773–780.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Henrich, J, McElreath, R, Barr, A, Ensminger, J, Barrett, C, Bolyanatz, A, Cardenas, JC, Gurven, M, Gwako, E, Henrich, N, Lesorogol, C, Marlowe, F, Tracer, D and Ziker, J (2006) Costly punishment across human societies. Science 312, 1767–1770.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Herrmann, B, Thöni, C and Gächter, S (2008) Antisocial punishment across societies. Science 319, 1362–1367.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Isaksen, ET, Brekke, KA and Richter, A (2019) Positive framing does not solve the tragedy of the commons. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 95, 45–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jensen, K (2010) Punishment and spite, the dark side of cooperation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London: Biological Sciences 365, 2635–2650.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
King, A (2000) Managing Without Institutions: the Role of Communication Networks in Governing Resource Access and Control (PhD thesis). University of Warwick, Coventry, UK.Google Scholar
Kingsley, DC (2015) Peer punishment across payoff equivalent public good and common pool resource experiments. Journal of the Economic Science Association 1, 197–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kingsley, DC and Liu, B (2014) Cooperation across payoff equivalent public good and common pool resource experiments. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics 51, 79–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kreps, DM, Milgrom, P, Roberts, J and Wilson, R (1982) Rational cooperation in the finitely repeated prisoners’ dilemma. Journal of Economic Theory 27, 245–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krueger, JI and Massey, AL (2009) A rational reconstruction of misbehavior. Social Cognition 27, 786–812.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leader‐Williams, N and Milner‐Gulland, EJ (1993) Policies for the enforcement of wildlife laws: the balance between detection and penalties in Luangwa Valley, Zambia. Conservation Biology 7, 611–617.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leibbrandt, A, Ramalingam, A, Sääksvuori, L and Walker, JM (2015) Incomplete punishment networks in public goods games: experimental evidence. Experimental Economics 18, 15–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lind, JT, Nyborg, K and Pauls, A (2019) Save the planet or close your eyes? Testing strategic ignorance in a charity context. Ecological Economics 161, 9–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molleman, L, Kölle, F, Starmer, C and Gächter, S (2019) People prefer coordinated punishment in cooperative interactions. Nature Human Behaviour 2, 1–9.Google Scholar
Neugebauer, T, Perote, J, Schmidt, U and Loos, M (2009) Selfish-biased conditional cooperation: on the decline of contributions in repeated public goods experiments. Journal of Economic Psychology 30, 52–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nikiforakis, N (2008) Punishment and counter-punishment in public good games: can we really govern ourselves? Journal of Public Economics 92, 91–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noussair, CN and van Soest, DP (2014) Economic experiments and environmental policy. Annual Review of Resource Economics 6, 319–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ostrom, E (2006) The value-added of laboratory experiments for the study of institutions and common-pool resources. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 61, 149–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ostrom, E (2010) Polycentric systems for coping with collective action and global environmental change. Global Environmental Change, 20th Anniversary Special Issue 20, 550–557.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ostrom, E, Walker, JM and Gardner, R (1992) Covenants with and without a sword: self-governance is possible. American Political Science Review 86, 404–417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ostrom, E, Gardner, R and Walker, JM (1994) Rules, Games, and Common-Pool Resources. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poteete, AR, Janssen, MA and Ostrom, E (2010) Working Together: Collective Action, the Commons, and Multiple Methods in Practice. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramalingam, A, Godoy, S, Morales, AJ and Walker, JM (2016) An individualistic approach to institution formation in public good games. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 129, 18–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saijo, T, Feng, J and Kobayashi, Y (2017) Common-pool resources are intrinsically unstable. International Journal of the Commons 11, 597–620.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schlag, KH, Tremewan, J and van der Weele, JJ (2015) A penny for your thoughts: a survey of methods for eliciting beliefs. Experimental Economics 18, 457–490.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shreedhar, G, Tavoni, A and Marchiori, C (2018) Monitoring and punishment networks in a common pool resource dilemma: experimental evidence. Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, Working Paper No. 292.Google Scholar
Smith, A (2013) Estimating the causal effect of beliefs on contributions in repeated public good games. Experimental Economics 163, 414–425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sturm, B and Weimann, J (2006) Experiments in environmental economics and some close relatives. Journal of Economic Surveys 20, 419–457.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Velez, MA, Stranlund, JK and Murphy, JJ (2009) What motivates common pool resource users? Experimental evidence from the field. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 70, 485–497.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vyrastekova, J and van Soest, D (2008) On the (in)effectiveness of rewards in sustaining cooperation. Experimental Economics 11, 53–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilcox, N and Feltovich, N (2000) Thinking like a game theorist: comment. Monash University, Department of Economics Working Paper.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Shreedhar et al. supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Shreedhar et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 1.7 MB