Exogenous degradation in the commons: Field experimental evidence

- We induce changes in the availability of a resource in an appropriation game.
- Subjects extract more after persistent, strong reductions in resource availability.
- Subjects extract more after progressive reductions in resource availability.
- Subjects extract more after rebounds in resource availability.

This article presents the results from framed field economic experiments in rural Colombia that aim to explore the behavioral responses of resource users to exogenous changes in the availability of a common-pool resource. In the first 10 rounds of the experiment, all subjects played at a baseline with the same initial resource availability. In the subsequent rounds, the experimenters exogenously changed the resource size, including mild and strong reductions in the resource size and rebounds to original size. Results show that subjects react to strong reductions in resource availability, by increasing appropriation from the resource. This behavior holds for intense and persistent as well as for progressive reductions in resource availability. In addition, subjects that experience a reduction in the resource availability followed by a rebound to the initial resource size appropriate more than those subjects who did not experience any change in the resource availability.