Indirect Reciprocity, Resource Sharing, and Environmental Risk: Evidence from Field Experiments in Siberia

Lance Howe, James Murphy, Drew Gerkey and Colin West
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Drew Gerkey: Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University
Colin West: Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina

No 2015-04, Working Papers from University of Alaska Anchorage, Department of Economics

Abstract: Integrating information from existing research, qualitative ethnographic interviews, and participant observation, we designed a field experiment that introduces idiosyncratic environmental risk and a voluntary sharing decision into a standard public goods game. Conducted with subsistence resource users in rural villages in remote Kamchatka Russia, we find evidence consistent with a model of indirect reciprocity and local social norms of helping the needy. When experiments allow participants to develop reputations, as is the case in most small-scale societies, we find that sharing is increasingly directed toward individuals experiencing hardship, good reputations increase aid, and risk-pooling becomes more effective. Our results highlight the importance of investigating social and ecological factors, beyond strategic risk, that affect the balance between independence and interdependence when developing and testing theories of cooperation.

Keywords: experimental economics; field experiment; public goods; risk-pooling; resource sharing; team production; environmental economics; social dilemma (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C90 C93 D70 D81 H41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-cbe, nep-cis, nep-env, nep-exp and nep-soc
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in PLoS ONE. 11(7): e0158940. July 21.

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http://www.econpapers.uaa.alaska.edu/RePEC/ala/wpaper/ALA201504.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Indirect Reciprocity, Resource Sharing, and Environmental Risk: Evidence from Field Experiments in Siberia (2016)
Working Paper: Indirect Reciprocity, Resource Sharing, and Environmental Risk: Evidence from Field Experiments in Siberia (2016)
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