What Motivates Common Pool Resource Users? Experimental Evidence from the Field

University of Massachusetts, Amherst Resource Economics Working Paper No. 2005-4

32 Pages Posted: 19 Apr 2005

See all articles by Maria Velez

Maria Velez

University of Massachusetts at Amherst - College of Natural Resources & the Environment - Department of Resource Economics

John Stranlund

University of Massachusetts at Amherst - College of Natural Resources & the Environment - Department of Resource Economics

James J. Murphy

University of Alaska Anchorage

Date Written: March 2005

Abstract

This paper develops and tests several models of pure Nash strategies of individuals who extract from a common pool resource when they are motivated by a combination of self-interest and other motivations such as altruism, reciprocity, inequity aversion and conformism. We test whether an econometric summary of subjects' strategies is consistent with one of these motivations using data from a series of common pool resource experiments conducted in three regions of Colombia. As expected, average extraction levels are less than that predicted by a model of pure self-interest, but are nevertheless sub-optimal. Moreover, we find that a model of conformism with monotonically increasing best response functions best describes average strategies. Our empirical results are inconsistent with models of altruism, reciprocity and inequity aversion.

Keywords: Common pool resources, experiments, altruism, reciprocity, conformism

JEL Classification: C93, D64, H41, Q20, C70

Suggested Citation

Velez, Maria and Stranlund, John and Murphy, James J., What Motivates Common Pool Resource Users? Experimental Evidence from the Field (March 2005). University of Massachusetts, Amherst Resource Economics Working Paper No. 2005-4, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=701262 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.701262

Maria Velez (Contact Author)

University of Massachusetts at Amherst - College of Natural Resources & the Environment - Department of Resource Economics ( email )

Stockbridge Hall
80 Campus Center Way
Amherst, MA 01003-9246
United States

John Stranlund

University of Massachusetts at Amherst - College of Natural Resources & the Environment - Department of Resource Economics ( email )

Stockbridge Hall
80 Campus Center Way
Amherst, MA 01003-9246
United States
413-545-6328 (Phone)

James J. Murphy

University of Alaska Anchorage ( email )

Anchorage, AK
United States
907-786-1936 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://faculty.cbpp.uaa.alaska.edu/jmurphy/

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