Escaping the Commons Dilemma: Enforcement and Collective Performance in Socio-Ecological Systems

Abstract

We develop a model of institutional emergence in a socio-ecological system (SES) to analyze the long-term impact of rule enforcement in collective action on the process of finding sustainable institutions to govern common pool resources. We argue that enforcing the rules increase the likelihood of finding an appropriate institution and decreases the duration of the emergence process. Using the SES framework and the literature on collective action, we propose an agent-based model (ABM) in which appropriators collectively design an institution to escape the tragedy of the commons through adaptation, while being subject to monitoring and sanctioning. We find that enforcement has a positive impact on the efficiency of the emergence process, moderated by the cost of enforcement. We offer further theoretical and empirical implications.