The Tragedy of the Commons as a Prisoner’s Dilemma. Its Relevance for Sustainability Games

Alessio Carrozzo Magli, Pompeo Della Posta and Piero Manfredi
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Alessio Carrozzo Magli: Department of Economics, University of Bologna, Piazza Scaravilli 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy
Pompeo Della Posta: Department of Economics and Management, University of Pisa, Via Ridolfi 10, 56124 Pisa, Italy
Piero Manfredi: Department of Economics and Management, University of Pisa, Via Ridolfi 10, 56124 Pisa, Italy

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 15, 1-10

Abstract: In the current battle for sustainability and climate, understanding the nature of sustainability games is of paramount importance, especially to inform appropriate policy actions to contrast the harmful effects of global climate change. Relatedly, there is no consensus in the literature on the proper game-theoretic representation of the so-called Tragedy of the Commons. A number of contributions have questioned the prisoner’s dilemma as an appropriate framework. In this work, we provide a representation that reconciles these two positions, confirming the ultimate nature of the Tragedy as a prisoner’s dilemma, rather than a coordination issue, and discuss the ensuing implications for sustainability policy interventions.

Keywords: sustainability game; prisoner’s dilemma; coordination game; Tragedy of the Commons; green investment; Nash equilibrium (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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