Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
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Behavioral Responses to Environmental Shocks and Externalities: Experimental Evidence Location: B129 Session Chair: Gebretsadik Teshager Siltanu, University of Copenhagen | |
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Exploitation, shocks, and attribution – lab-in-the-field evidence from Lake Victoria 1: University of Augsburg,Germany; 2: Heidelberg University, Germany; 3: ZEW-Mannheim, Germany; 4: Cornell University, USA; 5: Kenyan Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, Kenya We study how decision-makers that exploit coupled human–natural systems respond to shocks and how attribution of shocks to human or natural causes affects decisions. The small-scale fisheries at Lake Victoria are a prototypical case: the livelihoods of fishers depend on ecological dynamics that they themselves shape through their harvesting choices. In a lab-in-the-field experiment, fishers are randomly exposed to a payoff shock that differs only in its causal origin (human, natural, or joint) while holding material incentives and probabilities constant. We identify two main patterns. First, experiencing the shock reduces exploitation in a subsequent, identical situation. Second, this behavioral response tends to be stronger for human caused shocks than for natural shocks and is demonstrably weakest when jointly caused by human and natural factors. We further examine whether these effects are explained by individuals’ locus of control. Locus of control predicts baseline system exploitation, but does not explain behavioral adjustment or moderate attribution effects. Our findings provide experimental evidence that causal attribution can shape responses to shocks in coupled human–natural systems. | |