The tragedy of the commons?

Economic Theory - Tập 3 - Trang 413-426 - 1993
Prajit K. Dutta1, Rangarajan K. Sundaram2
1Department of Economics, Columbia University, New York, USA
2Department of Economics, University of Rochester, Rochester, USA

Tóm tắt

We provide a complete characterization of the set of Markov-Perfect Equilibria (MPE) of dynamic common-property resource games a la Levhari and Mirman (1980). We find that all MPE of such games exhibit remarkably regular dynamic behavior. Surprisingly, however, and despite their memoryless nature, MPE need not result in a “tragedy of the commons”, i.e., overexploitation of the resource relative to the first-best solutions. We show through an example that MPE could, in fact, lead to the reverse phenomenon of underexploitation of the resource. Nonetheless, we demonstrate that, in pay off space, MPE are always suboptimal.

Tài liệu tham khảo

Amir, R.: Sequential games of resource extraction: existence of Nash equilibrium Cowles Foundation Discussion Working Paper No. 825, 1987 Benhabib, J., Radner, R.: Joint exploitation of productive asset: a game-theoretic approach. Econ. Theory2, 155–190 (1992) Dutta, P. K., Sundaram, R. K.: Markovian Equilibrium in a class of stochastic games: existence theorems for discounted and undiscounted models. Econ. Theory2, 197–214 (1992) Dutta, P.K., Sundaram, R.K.: How different can strategic models be? Nonexistence, chaos, and underconsumption in Markov-perfect equilibria. J. Econ. Theory, forthcoming Easwaran, M., Lewis, T.: Appropriability and the extraction of a common property resource. Economica51, 393–400 (1985) Fudenberg, D., Tirole, J.: Capital as commitment: strategic investment to deter mobility. J. Econ. Theory31, 227–256 (1983) Lancaster, K.: The dynamic inefficiency of capitalism. J. Pol. Econ.81, 1098–1109 (1973) Levhari, D., Mirman, L.: The great fish war: an example using a dynamic Cournot-Nash solution. Bell J. Econ.11, 322–334 (1980) Mirman, L.: Dynamic models of fishing: a heuristic approach. In: Liu, P. T., Sutinen J. G. (eds.) Control theory in mathematical economics, pp. 39–73. New York: Decker 1979 Reinganum, J. F., Stokey, N. L.: Oligopolistic extraction of a natural resource: importance of the period of commitment in dynamic games. Int. Econ. Rev.26, 161–174 (1985) Sundaram, R.: Perfect equilibrium in a class of symmetric dynamic games. J. Econ. Theory47, 153–177 (1989)