Monitoring and management of common property resources: empirical evidence from forest user groups in Ethiopia

Goytom Abraha Kahsay and Erwin Bulte

Environment and Development Economics, 2024, vol. 29, issue 2, 154-177

Abstract: The presence of monitoring institutions affects quality and effort of leaders. We investigate the effect of intensified monitoring on the ability and effort of leaders for a sample of forest user groups in Ethiopia, and find experimental and non-experimental evidence of an important trade-off: monitoring increases leaders' effort but lowers their quality in terms of education and experience. This effort–ability trade-off only occurs in the presence of alternative income opportunities (affecting the opportunity cost of time) and only among a subsample of leaders with low prosocial motivation. For our context, we document that the net effect of monitoring on economic outcomes is positive.

Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cup:endeec:v:29:y:2024:i:2:p:154-177_4

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