Journal of Bioeconomics

We expect that human organizations and cooperative animal groups should be optimized for collective performance. This often involves the allocation of different individuals to different tasks. Social insect colonies are a prime example of cooperative animal groups that display sophisticated mechanisms of task allocation. Here we discuss which task allocation strategies may be adapted to which environmental and social conditions. Effective and robust task allocation is a hard problem, and in many biological and engineered complex systems is solved in a decentralized manner: human organizations may benefit from insights into what makes decentralized strategies of group organization effective. In addition, we often find considerable variation among individuals in how much work they appear to contribute, despite the fact that individual selfishness in social insects is low and optimization occurs largely at the group level. We review possible explanations for uneven workloads among workers, including limitations on individual information collection or constraints of task allocation efficiency, such as when there is a mismatch between the frequency of fluctuations in demand for work and the speed at which workers can be reallocated. These processes are likely to apply to any system in which worker agents are allocated to tasks with fluctuating demand, and should therefore be instructive to understanding optimal task allocation and inactive workers in any distributed system. Some of these processes imply that a certain proportion of inactive workers can be an adaptive strategy for collective organization.

Norms of positive and negative reciprocity constitute important constraints that affect human behavior. While much attention has been devoted to the economics of reciprocity in cooperation, the stylized fact that humans have a natural predisposition towards negative reciprocity and retaliation has received little consideration in the literature. In this study we investigate the behavioral foundations of retaliatory justice by considering the conditions under which norms of retaliation may constitute instruments for promoting desirable cooperation. The results suggest that human instincts for revenge may an important ingredient for the sustainability of peaceful social behavior.

This article critiques the efforts by Janet Landa, David Sloan Wilson and others to use group selection paradigms to explain the success of homogenous middlemen groups (HMGs). It argues that group selection theory cannot explain the conflicts of interests that arise within HMGs or why they dissolve in certain occasions. Landa’s earlier explanations, which stressed the combination of genetic (kinship) and social bonds in the creation of trust and cooperation in the extension of credit and the creation of local public goods, better predicts both the strength and weaknesses of HMGs.

Lake Naivasha fishery has been one of the most known sources of protein for most fringe communities in and around Naivasha. About 4000 livelihoods depend on the lake’s fishery resource, both directly and indirectly, thus pose concerns on the future sustainability. The ultimate aim of this study was to explore efforts, costs and optimum levels of fishery exploitation in Lake Naivasha. The study relied on fish landings and fishing effort statistics recorded between 1980 and 2017 by Fisheries Department. Data was analyzed using Gordon Schaefer’s model and excel operating software. A regression model was run to develop graphs that explained the relationship between total costs, total revenues, harvests and number of boats. Consequently to the main aim, the study sought to determine the total costs of fishing along with revenues generated. Findings show an increase in number of operational boats from twenty-six (26) in 1980 to fifty boats (50) in 2013. Thereafter, fishing boats increased significantly to one hundred and seventy-six (176) by 2017. Such a significant and unprecedented increase in efforts adversely affected natural fish stock and brooders of the major fish species in the fishery. Information in this paper will inform decisions on resource economics and management of fishing activities in Lake Naivasha, Kenya.