Spatial resource wars: A two region example

Giorgio Fabbri (1) , Silvia Faggian (2) , Giuseppe Freni (3)

1 GAEL - Laboratoire d'Economie Appliquée de Grenoble
2 University of Ca’ Foscari [Venice, Italy]
3 Department of Business and Economics, Parthenope University of Naples

We develop a spatial resource model in continuous time in which two agents strategically exploit a mobile resource in a two-locations setup. In order to contrast the overexploitation of the resource (the tragedy of commons) that occurs when the player are free to choose where to fish/hunt/extract/harvest, the regulator can establish a series of spatially structured policies. We compare the three situations in which the regulator: (a) leaves the player free to choose where to harvest; (b) establishes a natural reserve where nobody is allowed to harvest; (c) assigns to each player a specific exclusive location to hunt. We show that when preference parameters dictate a low harvesting intensity, the policies cannot mitigate the overexploitation and in addition they worsen the utilities of the players. Conversely, in a context of harsher harvesting intensity, the intervention can help to safeguard the resource, preventing the extinction and also improving the welfare of both players.

Mots clés: Spatial harvesting problems; Markov perfect equilibrium; Environmental protec-; tion policies; Differential Games

Domaines: Economies et finances

Giorgio Fabbri, Silvia Faggian, Giuseppe Freni. Spatial resource wars: A two region example. 2018. ⟨hal-01762471⟩