How Do Game Design, Gender, and Players’ Backgrounds Affect Behavior in Framed Field Experiments? Evidence from Community Forestry in India
Framed field experiments (experimental games) are widely used to assess factors affecting cooperation in management of the commons. However, there is relatively little attention to how details of the games affect experimental results. This paper presents qualitative and quantitative results from a f...
| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Formato: | Journal Article |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
Ubiquity Press, Ltd.
2022
|
| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/127782 |
| _version_ | 1855539693739835392 |
|---|---|
| author | Zhang, Wei Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S. Valappanandi, Sanoop Balakrishna, Raksha Reddy, Hemalatha Janssen, Marco A. Thomas, Liya Priyadarshini, Pratiti Kandicuppa, Sandeep Chaturvedi, Rahul Ghate, Rucha |
| author_browse | Balakrishna, Raksha Chaturvedi, Rahul Ghate, Rucha Janssen, Marco A. Kandicuppa, Sandeep Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S. Priyadarshini, Pratiti Reddy, Hemalatha Thomas, Liya Valappanandi, Sanoop Zhang, Wei |
| author_facet | Zhang, Wei Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S. Valappanandi, Sanoop Balakrishna, Raksha Reddy, Hemalatha Janssen, Marco A. Thomas, Liya Priyadarshini, Pratiti Kandicuppa, Sandeep Chaturvedi, Rahul Ghate, Rucha |
| author_sort | Zhang, Wei |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Framed field experiments (experimental games) are widely used to assess factors affecting cooperation in management of the commons. However, there is relatively little attention to how details of the games affect experimental results. This paper presents qualitative and quantitative results from a framed field experiment in which participants make decisions about extraction of a common-pool resource, a community forest. The experiment was conducted in 2017–2018 with 120 groups of resource users (split by gender) from 60 habitations in two Indian states, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. We test whether within-subject treatments (non-communication, communication, and optional election of institutional arrangements (rules)), remuneration methods, and design of the game board affect harvest behavior and groups’ tendency to cooperate. We also examine how characteristics of the community and players affect players’ choices in the game, with special attention to gender differences. Results reveal participants harvested substantially less than the Nash prediction even in the absence of communication, with men extracting less than women in both states. For male groups in both states, both communication and optional rule election were associated with lower group harvest per round, as compared to the reference non-communication game. For female groups in both states communication itself did not significantly slow resource depletion; but introduction of optional rule election did reduce harvest amounts. For both men and women in Andhra Pradesh and men in Rajasthan, incentivized payments to individual participants significantly lowered group harvest, relative to community flat payment, suggesting such payments stimulated deliberation among game players. Findings have methodological and practical implications for designing behavioral intervention programs to improve common-pool resource governance. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace127782 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publishDateRange | 2022 |
| publishDateSort | 2022 |
| publisher | Ubiquity Press, Ltd. |
| publisherStr | Ubiquity Press, Ltd. |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1277822025-10-26T12:50:57Z How Do Game Design, Gender, and Players’ Backgrounds Affect Behavior in Framed Field Experiments? Evidence from Community Forestry in India Zhang, Wei Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S. Valappanandi, Sanoop Balakrishna, Raksha Reddy, Hemalatha Janssen, Marco A. Thomas, Liya Priyadarshini, Pratiti Kandicuppa, Sandeep Chaturvedi, Rahul Ghate, Rucha game theory gender community forestry forestry framed field experiment capacity development institutions incentivized payment Framed field experiments (experimental games) are widely used to assess factors affecting cooperation in management of the commons. However, there is relatively little attention to how details of the games affect experimental results. This paper presents qualitative and quantitative results from a framed field experiment in which participants make decisions about extraction of a common-pool resource, a community forest. The experiment was conducted in 2017–2018 with 120 groups of resource users (split by gender) from 60 habitations in two Indian states, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. We test whether within-subject treatments (non-communication, communication, and optional election of institutional arrangements (rules)), remuneration methods, and design of the game board affect harvest behavior and groups’ tendency to cooperate. We also examine how characteristics of the community and players affect players’ choices in the game, with special attention to gender differences. Results reveal participants harvested substantially less than the Nash prediction even in the absence of communication, with men extracting less than women in both states. For male groups in both states, both communication and optional rule election were associated with lower group harvest per round, as compared to the reference non-communication game. For female groups in both states communication itself did not significantly slow resource depletion; but introduction of optional rule election did reduce harvest amounts. For both men and women in Andhra Pradesh and men in Rajasthan, incentivized payments to individual participants significantly lowered group harvest, relative to community flat payment, suggesting such payments stimulated deliberation among game players. Findings have methodological and practical implications for designing behavioral intervention programs to improve common-pool resource governance. 2022-12-20 2023-01-22T18:18:55Z 2023-01-22T18:18:55Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/127782 en https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134238 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.02.006 https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-08416-210338 Open Access Ubiquity Press, Ltd. Zhang, Wei; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth Suseela; Valappanandi, Sanoop; Balakrishna, Raksha; Reddy, Hemalatha; Janssen, Marco A.; Thomas, Liya; et al. 2022. How do game design, gender, and players’ backgrounds affect behavior in framed field experiments? Evidence from community forestry in India. International Journal of the Commons 16(1): 341–359. http://doi.org/10.5334/ijc.1179 |
| spellingShingle | game theory gender community forestry forestry framed field experiment capacity development institutions incentivized payment Zhang, Wei Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S. Valappanandi, Sanoop Balakrishna, Raksha Reddy, Hemalatha Janssen, Marco A. Thomas, Liya Priyadarshini, Pratiti Kandicuppa, Sandeep Chaturvedi, Rahul Ghate, Rucha How Do Game Design, Gender, and Players’ Backgrounds Affect Behavior in Framed Field Experiments? Evidence from Community Forestry in India |
| title | How Do Game Design, Gender, and Players’ Backgrounds Affect Behavior in Framed Field Experiments? Evidence from Community Forestry in India |
| title_full | How Do Game Design, Gender, and Players’ Backgrounds Affect Behavior in Framed Field Experiments? Evidence from Community Forestry in India |
| title_fullStr | How Do Game Design, Gender, and Players’ Backgrounds Affect Behavior in Framed Field Experiments? Evidence from Community Forestry in India |
| title_full_unstemmed | How Do Game Design, Gender, and Players’ Backgrounds Affect Behavior in Framed Field Experiments? Evidence from Community Forestry in India |
| title_short | How Do Game Design, Gender, and Players’ Backgrounds Affect Behavior in Framed Field Experiments? Evidence from Community Forestry in India |
| title_sort | how do game design gender and players backgrounds affect behavior in framed field experiments evidence from community forestry in india |
| topic | game theory gender community forestry forestry framed field experiment capacity development institutions incentivized payment |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/127782 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT zhangwei howdogamedesigngenderandplayersbackgroundsaffectbehaviorinframedfieldexperimentsevidencefromcommunityforestryinindia AT meinzendickruths howdogamedesigngenderandplayersbackgroundsaffectbehaviorinframedfieldexperimentsevidencefromcommunityforestryinindia AT valappanandisanoop howdogamedesigngenderandplayersbackgroundsaffectbehaviorinframedfieldexperimentsevidencefromcommunityforestryinindia AT balakrishnaraksha howdogamedesigngenderandplayersbackgroundsaffectbehaviorinframedfieldexperimentsevidencefromcommunityforestryinindia AT reddyhemalatha howdogamedesigngenderandplayersbackgroundsaffectbehaviorinframedfieldexperimentsevidencefromcommunityforestryinindia AT janssenmarcoa howdogamedesigngenderandplayersbackgroundsaffectbehaviorinframedfieldexperimentsevidencefromcommunityforestryinindia AT thomasliya howdogamedesigngenderandplayersbackgroundsaffectbehaviorinframedfieldexperimentsevidencefromcommunityforestryinindia AT priyadarshinipratiti howdogamedesigngenderandplayersbackgroundsaffectbehaviorinframedfieldexperimentsevidencefromcommunityforestryinindia AT kandicuppasandeep howdogamedesigngenderandplayersbackgroundsaffectbehaviorinframedfieldexperimentsevidencefromcommunityforestryinindia AT chaturvedirahul howdogamedesigngenderandplayersbackgroundsaffectbehaviorinframedfieldexperimentsevidencefromcommunityforestryinindia AT ghaterucha howdogamedesigngenderandplayersbackgroundsaffectbehaviorinframedfieldexperimentsevidencefromcommunityforestryinindia |