The Influence of Legitimacy Perceptions on Cooperation – A Framed Field Experiment

Jetske Bouma, K.J. Joy, Suhas Paranjape and Erik Ansink

World Development, 2014, vol. 57, issue C, 127-137

Abstract: Decentralization of irrigation management is claimed to improve performance by enhancing legitimacy and, thus, increasing cooperation. We test this hypothesis by collecting information about water users’ legitimacy perceptions and assessing the impact of these perceptions on irrigation charge payments and behavior in a framed field experiment. Our results show that legitimacy perceptions differ between communities and between water users association members and non-members but that these differences do not explain charge payments nor behavior in the irrigation treatment of the game. We conclude that decentralization may enhance legitimacy perceptions but that this does not necessarily increase cooperation in irrigation management.

Keywords: framed field experiment; public goods game; irrigation management; legitimacy; water users association (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Working Paper: Legitimacy and cooperation: A framed field experiment (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:57:y:2014:i:c:p:127-137

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.12.007

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