Foundations + institutions · Week 04

Debrief the fishing game, then build the institutional toolkit

Start with the evidence from Classwork 3. Then begin Lecture 4 at page 17 and apply its ideas to a new shared-aquifer case in Classwork 4.

Sep 14–18Classwork 3 → Lecture 4 (p. 17) → Classwork 4TL Ch. 2

Focus

  • Evidence from the Classwork 3 fishing experiment
  • Property rights, public goods, and open access
  • Liability, regulation, incentives, and transaction costs

Prepare

  • Revisit your Classwork 3 choices and group record
  • Read TL Chapter 2
  • Bring one explanation for a difference across settings

Practice

  • Compare catches, dock prices, and fish left
  • Identify who may use, exclude, transfer, monitor, and enforce
  • Design pumping and information rules for a shared aquifer

Guiding question

What did the fishing experiment reveal about incentives—and which institutions can make resource users face the consequences of their choices?

Learning targets

  • Interpret differences across the five fishing settings without treating them as clean causal estimates.
  • Distinguish private, common, public, and open-access resource regimes.
  • Explain why open access dissipates rent and why public goods tend to be underprovided.
  • Add individual marginal benefits vertically to value a public good.
  • Design a resource institution while accounting for monitoring, transaction costs, and fairness.

Week rhythm

Date Work
Mon · Sep 14 Classwork 3 debrief, then begin Lecture 4
Wed · Sep 16 Property rights, public goods, and open access
Fri · Sep 18 Classwork 4: designing rules for a shared aquifer

Lecture slides

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Lecture 4 · Property Rights, Open Access, and Resource Institutions Begin at page 17

This week’s materials

Classwork 3Fishing Experiment: Results and Debrief Lecture 4Property Rights, Open Access, and Resource Institutions · Start at p. 17 Classwork 4Designing Rules for a Shared Aquifer Homework 1Externalities, Resource Access, and Public Goods · Due Sep 16 at 9:30 A.M.

Coming next

Week 5 moves from static resource allocation to choices through time: benefit-cost analysis, present value, and dynamic efficiency.

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