Responsibility for Regime Shifts in Managed Ecosystems

45 Pages Posted: 18 Feb 2021

See all articles by Stefan Baumgärtner

Stefan Baumgärtner

University of Freiburg - Department of Environment and Natural Resources

Date Written: December 01, 2020

Abstract

I develop a quantitative measure of a manager's responsibility for a regime shift in a managed ecosystem with stochastic dynamics. I build on the well-established concept of responsibility, which I operationalize in a simple generic model. Causal responsibility is the degree of causation of an outcome due to the manager's action, which is in contrast to chance influences that may also have caused the outcome ("good luck'' or "bad luck''). Normative responsibility is the manager's obligation to see to it that the system is in, or shifts to, a specified desired state. It implies a particular management action. Virtuous responsibility is the degree to which the manager lives up to her normative responsibility when taking a management action. The quantitative measurement of responsibility is relevant to judge management actions, to reward or punish the manager based on the extent of her (ir)responsibility, and to design institutions that enable and encourage responsible management of ecosystems with potential regime shifts.

Keywords: accountability, ascription, attribution, ecosystem management, causation, norms, regime shift, responsibility

JEL Classification: Q57

Suggested Citation

Baumgärtner, Stefan, Responsibility for Regime Shifts in Managed Ecosystems (December 01, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3752006 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3752006

Stefan Baumgärtner (Contact Author)

University of Freiburg - Department of Environment and Natural Resources ( email )

Tennebacher Str. 4
Freiburg, 79106
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.ere.uni-freiburg.de

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
52
Abstract Views
344
Rank
648,016
PlumX Metrics