Abstract
The overexploitation of common pool resources is frequently associated with open access regimes in which each resource user operates independently of all other resource users. The outcome is a Nash equilibrium of the prisoner’s dilemma. Restricted access regimes of the sort identified by Ostrom and colleagues typically ensure that individual resource users do not operate independently. Taking a quantum approach to the theory of games, we argue that the institutional arrangements involved in common pool resource management imply the “entanglement” of the strategies of resource users. For a very simple case — two firms exploiting a common pool fishery — we show that there exists an “entanglement” mechanism that assures the cooperative outcome.
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