Dynamic Decision-Making in Common-Pool Resource Economic Experiments: Behavioral Heterogeneity in the Field and the Lab

The study addresses the identification of behavioral types of participants of economic framed field and laboratory experiments in the use of a shared resource. A dynamic common-pool resource experiment was conducted with 84 farmers selected from different areas of the state of Aguascalientes, Mexico, as well as with 92 undergraduate students. A Bayesian classification procedure based on the one proposed by Houser et al. (2004) but modified to incorporate multiple discrete options addressed with a multinomial probit is used. This adaptation of the probit model based on groundwater dynamics allows for great flexibility in discrete choice modeling and the identification of significantly different types of behavior. Two significantly different groups of types of behavior are found in the field experiment with farmers (a cautious and a greedy group), while three groups are found in the laboratory experiment (two groups behaving myopically while one group that behaves as the rational/strategic theoretic behavior). Identifying and classifying the types of behaviors within a heterogenous population is a challenging but necessary task in a CPR context to designed tailored interventions to local social and ecological contexts that can effectively mitigate the risk of resource depletion.