What is Public Goods and Common Pool Resources

Goods that have in common that it is difficult or impossible to exclude potential consumers from them. The difference between those two categories is the different degree of subtractability. The utility derived from public goods is not or only slightly diminished by others using the same good. Examples include coded law and fresh air. Common pool resources, on the other hand, are characterized by subtractability. Examples include the fish population in a lake and groundwater. There are goods that lie in between, for example infrastructure like highways: as long as its use is well below its capacity, one more car does not hinder the other cars; in rush hour, however, cars compete for space. While the main problem with Public Goods is the provision and corresponding free-rider behavior, the main issue with common pool resources is appropriation or over-appropriation. These problems are addressed by different experimental decision environments: voluntary contribution mechanism refers to the provision of public goods; appropriation experiments deal with (over-)appropriation of common pool resources (see Ostrom et al., 1994 ).

Agent-Based Modelnig with Boundedly Rational Agents

E. Ebenhoh (University of Osnabrück, Germany)