Renewable resource use with imperfect self-control

Holger Strulik and Katharina Werner

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2023, vol. 212, issue C, 778-795

Abstract: We investigate renewable resource use when the harvesting agents face self-control problems. Individuals are conceptualized as dual selves. The rational long-run self plans for the infinite future while the affective short-run self desires to maximize instantaneous profits or utility. Depending on the degree of self-control, actual behavior is partly driven by short-run desires. In a model of a single harvesting agent (e.g. a fishery), we discuss how self-control problems affect harvesting behavior, resource conservation, and sustainability and discuss policies to curb overuse and potential collapse of the resource due to limited self-control. We then extend the model to several harvesting agents and show how limited self-control exacerbates the common pool problem. Finally, we investigate heterogenous agents and show that there are spillover effects of limited self-control in the sense that perfectly rational agents also behave less conservatively when they interact with agents with imperfect self-control.

Keywords: Self-control; Temptation; Renewable resource use; Sustainability; Common pool resource management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 D60 D90 Q20 Q50 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Related works:
Working Paper: Renewable resource use with imperfect self-control (2020)
Working Paper: Renewable Resource Use with Imperfect Self-Control (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:212:y:2023:i:c:p:778-795

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2023.06.020

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