Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Can Reminders of Rules Induce Compliance? Experimental Evidence from a Common Pool Resource Setting

Eisenbarth, Sabrina; Graham, Louis; Rigterink, Anouk S.

Can Reminders of Rules Induce Compliance? Experimental Evidence from a Common Pool Resource Setting Thumbnail


Authors

Sabrina Eisenbarth

Louis Graham



Abstract

This paper presents results from an RCT exploring whether a behavioural intervention can improve the conservation of a common pool resource. The literature on common pool resource management suggests that the existence of rules and sanctions is important to resource conservation. However, behavioural science suggests that individuals have finite cognitive capacity and may not be attentive to these rules and sanctions. This paper investigates the impact of an SMS message intervention designed to improve users’ knowledge of and attentiveness to existing forest use rules. An RCT in Uganda explores the impact of these messages on forest use and compliance with the rules. This paper fnds that SMS messages raise the perceived probability of sanctions for rule-breakers. However, SMS messages do not induce full compliance with forest use rules or systematically reduce forest use.

Citation

Eisenbarth, S., Graham, L., & Rigterink, A. S. (2021). Can Reminders of Rules Induce Compliance? Experimental Evidence from a Common Pool Resource Setting. Environmental and Resource Economics, 79(4), 653-681. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-020-00526-w

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 16, 2020
Online Publication Date Dec 11, 2020
Publication Date 2021-08
Deposit Date Dec 15, 2020
Publicly Available Date Dec 16, 2020
Journal Environmental and Resource Economics
Print ISSN 0924-6460
Electronic ISSN 1573-1502
Publisher Springer
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 79
Issue 4
Pages 653-681
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-020-00526-w
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1255421

Files

Published Journal Article (1.7 Mb)
PDF

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.





You might also like



Downloadable Citations