Seminar
"Rethinking Free-Riding and Tragedy of the Commons"

Date & Hours:	Tuesday, April 24, 2018, 13:00 - 15:00
Venue:	Seminar Rooms 3・4, RIHN( →Access)
Organizer:	Research Institute for Humanity and Nature " "Research Program 3"
Speaker:	Caleb Koch Doctoral Candidate, Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences, Computational Social Science
Abstract:	The leading explanation for over-usage and depletion of common-pool resources, phenomena documented extensively at the aggregate level, is free-riding. This paper is the first to directly test, and falsify, the free-riding hypothesis with real-world data at the micro-level. First, we develop testable comparative statics by solving a general dynamic game. Second, we test these predictions on a unique large-scale dataset of groundwater usage in the American Midwest. We find strong and robust evidence rejecting free-riding. Contrary to predictions, positive interaction effects based on reciprocation are robustly identified. Our results suggest new perspectives on tragedy of the commons and their governance.
Contact:	Program 3, UEDA