MANAGING A COMMON RESOURCE

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general description consumat approach

application fields:

In a commons dilemma a collective opportunity, or resource, exists from which all individuals may consume. This stylized concept guides a lot of research in environmental science, social psychology, economics and institutional science, for theoretical, experimental and field research.
Because of the large amount of empirical information and the relevance for environmental management we used this concept as a leading guide for a number of applications of the consumat approach. We study how individual characteristics and behavioural rules affect the long term dynamics of a common (renewable) resource. Our studies show how uncertainty can stimulate imitation which promotes over-harvesting. Increase of uncertainty leads to increase of over-harvesting.

Further Reading:
- Jager, W., Janssen, M.A. and Vlek, C.A.J. (1999), Consumats in a commons dilemma: Testing the behavioural rules of simulated consumers, COV report no. 99-01, Groningen: Centre for Environment and Traffic Psychology, University of Groningen
- Jager W., M.A. Janssen, H.J.M. De Vries, J. De Greef and C.A.J. Vlek (2000), Behaviour in commons dilemmas: Homo Economicus and Homo Psychologicus in an ecological-economic model, Ecological Economics, 35(3), 357-379.
- Jager, W., M.A. Janssen and C.A.J. Vlek (2002), How uncertainty stimulates over-harvesting in a resource dilemma: three process explanations, Journal of Environmental Psychology, 22: 247-263
- Jager, A. and M.A. Janssen (2002), Using artificial agents to understand laboratory experiments of common-pool resources with real agents, in Janssen, M.A. (ed.) Complexity and Ecosystem Management: The Theory and Practice of Multi-agent Systems, Edward Elgar Publishers, Cheltenham UK/ Northampton, MA, USA. pp. 75-102.