Responsibility for Regime Shifts in Managed Ecosystems

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