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From drought to flood: environmental constraints and the political economy of civic virtue
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Galassi, Francesco L. (2002) From drought to flood: environmental constraints and the political economy of civic virtue. Working Paper. Coventry: University of Warwick, Department of Economics. Warwick economic research papers (No.643).
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Official URL: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/resear...
Abstract
The paper models co-operative engagement under varying environmental constraints giving rise to different forms of collective action problems, specifically focussing on water management in pre-industrial societies. I show that societies where water availability is strongly seasonal develop no mechanism to encourage society-wide co-operative behaviour because the benefits of water storage are fully excludable. With pre-industrial technology water storage is a pure club good, and optimal club size can be shown to be very small under credible parameter values, converging to 1 in some cases (private good). The social consequences of the environmental constraint include strongly circumscribed co-operation and rent seeking. In contrast, areas where water management involved flood control and irrigation develop society-wide institutions based on self-sustaining co-operative engagement assisted by external policing. The model thus offers an explanation of varying levels of "civic virtue" in different areas.
Item Type: | Working or Discussion Paper (Working Paper) | ||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform | ||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Social choice, Group decision making, Environmental ethics, Natural disasters -- Social aspects, Cooperation | ||||
Series Name: | Warwick economic research papers | ||||
Publisher: | University of Warwick, Department of Economics | ||||
Place of Publication: | Coventry | ||||
Official Date: | 2002 | ||||
Dates: |
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Number: | No.643 | ||||
Number of Pages: | 26 | ||||
Status: | Not Peer Reviewed | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) |
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