Methodological and Ideological OptionsToo different to solve climate change? Experimental evidence on the effects of production and benefit heterogeneity on collective action
Section snippets
Heterogeneity among climate actors
Greenhouse gas mitigation is arguably one of the most challenging collective action problems humanity has faced. In a recent landmark study, the UN warns that carbon dioxide emissions would have to drop 45% by 2030 to limit temperature increases to 1.5 °C and avoid potentially catastrophic consequences (IPCC, 2018). The requisite changes in behavior and economic composition, advancements in technology, and adjustments to carbon-heavy infrastructure would be enormous (ibid.). Exacerbating the
Marginal cost and benefit heterogeneity in a linear public goods games
To explore the impact of production and benefit heterogeneity, we utilize a linear11
Group-level effects: Heterogeneity (type) matters for collective action
Fig. 1 provides an overview of group-level contribution behavior. As is common in public goods games, there is a gradual decline in contributions—an endgame effect (Ledyard, 1995; Neugebauer et al., 2009). Of note, however, is that groups in the HOM treatment tend to contribute more toward the public good.25
Conclusion
We conduct a linear public goods game in which we vary how effectively individuals can provide the good and how much they benefit from its provision. In so doing, we study the effects of marginal productivity heterogeneity and marginal benefit heterogeneity on collective action to provide a public good. Our findings provide insight into the effects of heterogeneity on collective action public good provision in general, and on climate change mitigation in particular. Unlike previous experimental
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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