Browsing by Author "Dudley, Dean"

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The Commons: An Experimental Examination of Individual Behavior
(1989) Dudley, Dean
"A large and rich body of literature has evolved around the concept of the social dilemma. In particular, social dilemma literature has focused on the problem of individual incentive incompatibilities. This problem arises when the incentives of a free and competitive market induce rational individuals to make choices that lead to socially sub-optimal outcomes. An environment which commonly induces incentive incompatibilities is the one in which individuals have open access to a common pool resource. Ocean fisheries are considered a prime example of such environments."
Essays on Individual Behavior in Social Dilemma Environments: An Experimental Analysis
(1993) Dudley, Dean
"In this study, individual level behavior is investigated in the context of computer assisted voluntary contribution mechanism public good (VCM) provision experiments and common pool resource (CPR) appropriation experiments. Previous studies of these environments have concentrated on aggregate outcomes and have found, on average, aggregate outcomes fall between the predictions of the models based on privately rational agents and socially rational agents. "In the VCM provision experiments, 43% of the subjects behave consistently with a predictive model based on private rationality (Nash) and 21% of the subjects behave consistently with a predictive model based on social rationality. In the CPR appropriation experiments, 74% of the subjects behave consistently with a predictive model based on private rationality and 5% of the subjects behave consistently with a model based on social rationality. Both of these results help to explain why the aggregate outcomes fall between the privately and socially rational model predictions. The third essay investigates subject forecasting behavior in the CPR provision environment. Here, subjects tend to efficiently use scarce information revealed through lagged forecast error, but their forecasts are biased. This result is not consistent with rational expectations forecasts. Subject forecast behavior is better described by a Bayesian point estimate updating model iv with an updating weight approaching one on prior beliefs. This outcome is consistent with the observed failure of subjects to converge to an equilibrium outcome, in the CPR experiments."
Heterogeneities, Information, and Conflict Resolution: Experimental Evidence on Sharing Contracts
(1993) Hackett, Steven C.; Dudley, Dean; Walker, James M.
Subsequently published as: "Heterogeneities, Information, and Conflict Resolution: Experimental Evidence on Sharing Contracts," Journal of Theoretical Politics 6(4), 1994, 495-525. "A growing body of field and experimental literature provides considerable evidence that individuals may evolve and adopt self-governing institutions that enable conflict resolution. A principle focus of this paper is the role of heterogeneity in individual attributes as an obstacle to conflict resolution. Results are presented from two ongoing research programs: (1) individual and group decision making in the context of a commonly held resource that is subtractable in units of appropriation, and (2) ex post negotiation of surplus shares in incomplete contracts. Both programs have been designed to investigate conflict resolution when subjects are heterogenous in costly investments they have incurred."
Individual Choice in Common Pool Resource Environments: An Experimental Approach
(1994) Dudley, Dean
"This study investigates observed appropriator input employment in an experimental CPR environment. The focus is on whether an appropriator's input employment in the CPR is consistent with any of the predictive models that assume privately rational appropriators or with the predictive model that assumes socially rational appropriators."