Appropriation and concern for resource scarcity in the commons: An experimental study

We use an experimental linear design and a logit probabilistic choice function to model and estimate agents' concern for resource scarcity. Although full-appropriation is the dominant strategy of the basic game whatever the resource size, we expect that if agents exploiting a common pool resource feel any concern for resource scarcity, they would be more likely to alter their appropriation strategy the scarcer the resource stock. Our results show that this expectation holds and appropriation is restrained when resources are scarce. Further, as this result could be attributed to both, agents' concern for resource scarcity and calculation errors in the determination of the appropriation strategies, we estimate the relevance of both.