Decentralized management of common property resources: experiments with a centuries-old institution

@article{citeulike:2527832, abstract = {For centuries, villages in the Alps employed a special system for managing their common properties. Individual users could inspect other users at their own cost and impose a predetermined sanction (a fine) when a free rider was discovered. The fine was paid to the user who found a violator. Experiments with the institutions demonstrate that this mechanism considerably improves efficiency of resource use. The classical model of identical selfish agents does not capture the data as well as a model with heterogeneous and linear other-regarding preferences. Altruism and especially potentially dysfunctional behavior, such as spite and mistakes, play important positive roles.}, author = {Casari, Marco and Plott, Charles R. }, citeulike-article-id = {2527832}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0167-2681(02)00098-7}, journal = {Journal of Economic Behavior \& Organization}, keywords = {common\_pool}, month = {June}, number = {2}, pages = {217--247}, posted-at = {2008-03-13 15:40:10}, priority = {2}, title = {Decentralized management of common property resources: experiments with a centuries-old institution}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0167-2681(02)00098-7}, volume = {51}, year = {2003} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:2527832 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2527832 N2 - For centuries, villages in the Alps employed a special system for managing their common properties. Individual users could inspect other users at their own cost and impose a predetermined sanction (a fine) when a free rider was discovered. The fine was paid to the user who found a violator. Experiments with the institutions demonstrate that this mechanism considerably improves efficiency of resource use. The classical model of identical selfish agents does not capture the data as well as a model with heterogeneous and linear other-regarding preferences. Altruism and especially potentially dysfunctional behavior, such as spite and mistakes, play important positive roles. IS - 2 JF - Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization EP - 247 TI - Decentralized management of common property resources: experiments with a centuries-old institution VL - 51 SP - 217 KW - common_pool AU - Casari, Marco AU - Plott, Charles PY - 2003/06// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0167-2681(02)00098-7 ER -