Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/148306 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
Ruhr Economic Papers No. 651
Publisher: 
RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Essen
Abstract: 
We conduct a framed field experiment in Indonesian fishing communities, with an eye towards evaluating the potential of Territorial Use Rights for Fisheries (TURFs) to preserve coral reef fisheries. Conducted in three culturally distinctive sites, the study assembles groups of five fishers who participate in a common-pool resource game. We implement the game with randomly assigned treatments in all sites to explore whether the extraction decision varies according to three recommended non-binding extraction levels originating from (1) a democratic process, (2) a group leader or (3) an external source that recommends a socially optimal extraction level. In one of the sites - that having the highest levels of ethnic and religious diversity - we find that democratic decision-making as well as information originating from outside the community promotes the cooperative behavior that underpins TURFs, a result that is robust to regressions controlling for individual and community attributes.
Subjects: 
Framed field experiment
commons dilemmas
coral reefs
self-governance
JEL: 
C93
H43
L31
Q32
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-3-86788-757-1
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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