Instructions Activity: Tragedy of the Commons Monday 20 Apr, 2020

STARTING INSTRUCTIONS

Your group crews a fishing boat that can operate on one of two nearby lakes, North and South. On the
first round there will be 8 boats on each lake.

Gains From Fishing:

Each round, you will be able to take your boat out on the lake it is docked at. You can choose to catch
anywhere from zero to five fish. You value your leisure time, and fishing is hard work, so you earn
some utility if you catch no fish, and you get decreasing returns from catching more fish.

Fish Caught: 0 1 2 3 4 5
Utils Enjoyed: 5 10 14 17 19 20

Each lake is quite large, so no one can stop you from catching as many fish as you choose. However,
over-fishing can kill all the fish in the lake. At start, there are 60 fish in each lake, which is also the
maximum number of fish that can be in each lake. At the start of each round the number of fish in the
lake will be 1.5 times the number of fish left in the lake, rounded down – again with a maximum of 60.
(If more than 20 fish are caught in the first round, the population will begin to decline.)

Over-Fishing:

If the number of fish being caught exceeds the population, fishing boats will be prioritized from highest
to lowest desired catch, with missing fish allocated one at a time to the lowest ranked boats first. Ties
result in fewer fish caught.
(Say there are four boats that try to catch A=4, B=3, C=3, D=2, but there are only 10 fish. D is lowest
ranked and thus loses a fish. B and C are next lowest ranked, but only one missing fish is left to
allocate. Per above, both B and C lose a fish. Thus, the final catch amounts are A=4, B=2, C=2, D=1.)

You will lose 6 utils for each fish that you try to catch, but fail to obtain.

If the number of fish in a lake, after fishing, is below 10, the population dies out and the government
will close the lake for two rounds to restock it. When a lake re-opens, its population starts at 60.

Switching Lakes:

You may, if you want, move your boat from one lake to the other at a cost of 5 utils. This choice can be
made at the end of a round. Boats that remain docked at a dead lake can only catch zero fish.

BONUS will go to the 6 groups with the highest total earnings across all rounds. As usual, ties can
result in additional winners.
Instructions Activity: Tragedy of the Commons Monday 20 Apr, 2020

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS

At some point during the activity, at the instructor’s discretion, you will gain the opportunity to change
the rules in the hopes of preventing fish depletion. For the first few rounds, the lake will remain
unregulated.

Dictators:

Each round, one of the boats docked at each lake will be randomly selected as the dictator for that lake.
The dictator boat gets to choose one of three policies that will govern that lake for the current round.

The first policy is to leave the lake unregulated. In this case the previous rules apply. The second
policy is a permit system, and the third policy is a fee system.

Permit System:

In this case, only 4 boats will be allowed to leave the dock this round. All other boats will catch zero
fish. A silent auction will be held where each boat on the lake places a bid (in utils). The maximum bid
allowed is 15 utils. The top four bids will be paid into a general fund, and those boats will be able to
catch fish. All other bidders will pay nothing, and will be kept at the dock. In the case of tied bids, a
winner will be determined randomly.

Fee System:

In this case, a fee of X utils per fish caught must be paid into the general fund, where X is the total
number of fish caught by that boat. There are no restrictions on which boats can leave the dock.
(For example, if a boat catches 3 fish, they will pay 3 x 3 = 9 utils into the general fund.)

General Fund:

All revenue put into the general fund each round will be disbursed equally to all boats docked at that
lake, regardless of how many fish they caught. This payment will be rounded down to the nearest util.
(This means that under a permit system, there is a net transfer from boats with permits to boats that did
not get permits. Under a fee system, there is a net transfer from boats that fish more than the average
to boats that fish less than the average for that round.)

Note: The decision to switch lakes occurs after the general fund pays out.