Collective Action Flashcards

1
Q

Definition of free-riding

A

Each person benefits without contributing

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2
Q

What is free-riding, whats it lead to?

A
  • The maximization of short-term self-interest yields outcomes leaving all participants worse off
  • Rationally, no-one contributes
  • Free-riding prevents cooperation
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3
Q

How come public goods causing free-riding, examples of these public goods

A
  • Public goods generate free-riding problems
    – By definition, the benefits are non-excludable
    – Each person can benefit without contributing
  • Examples
    – Defense, infrastructure, public health, property rights
    – Climate change mitigation
    – Electoral accountability
    – Social accountability
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4
Q

Rational vs real behavior of cooperation (collective action)

A
  • Rational behavior: DO NOT cooperate
  • The paradox of collective action: people are too cooperative in practice
    – In lab experiments. cooperation rates are 20-50%, not 0%
    – People do protest in large numbers (sometimes)
    – Voters do kick out bad leaders (sometimes)
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5
Q

Definition of collective action

A

Multiple people coordinating their actions to overcome a free-riding problem and secure a collective benefit

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6
Q

When is collective action easier?

A
  • The group is smaller
    – Communication and monitoring is easier
  • Coercion is used
    – Taxation solves many public goods problems
  • Selective incentives are used
    – Handing out t-shirts, food, money to participants
    – Entertainment
  • Informal institutions: social norms
    – Where there are repeated interactions
    – And social costs to not participating
    – Voting as a duty
    – Community clean-up days
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7
Q

What is the effect of anti-corruption projects (monitoring) on enforcement, and why?

A
  • Anti-corruption projects try to increase accountability
    – Most African countries have “very strong” anti-corruption laws
  • But increased monitoring, or stricter punishment does not increase enforcement
  • Because principals do not do their job
    – Bureaucrats look the other way to protect their job
    – Politicians steal to finance elections
    – Voters prioritize ethnicity, clientelism over voting out bad leaders
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8
Q

Reporting and punishing corruption as free-rider problems

A
  • Monitoring and reporting is costly
  • Less corruption benefits everyone in society (a public good, making investment safer)
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9
Q

How does corruption being the norm affect enforcement and why?

A

Enforcement is weak because corruption is the norm
- An informal institution (“culture”) of corruption
- Being honest can bring social punishment
- Failed anti-corruption reforms just create more cynicism and stronger expectations that corruption will continue

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10
Q

Example of John Githongo and corruption

A

John Githongo, Permanent Secretary in charge of Governance and Ethics, Kenya, 2003-2005
- Reported the Anglo-Leasing corruption scandal
- Allegedly received death threats from the head of Kenya’s Anti-Corruption Commission
- Fled the country

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11
Q

Whats the alternative to collective action in stopping corruption?

A
  • Changing social norms and expectations
  • Informal institutions
  • So that people want to sanction others for wrong-doing
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12
Q

Whats the alternative to collective action in stopping corruption?

A
  • Changing social norms and expectations
  • Informal institutions
  • So that people want to sanction others for wrong-doing
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13
Q

How do norms against corruption strengthen accountability?

A
  • Bureaucrats get respect for blowing the whistle
  • Judges reject bribes to maintain social status as clean
  • Voters see their role as punishing corrupt politicians
  • Citizens collectively protest against bad services to be a part of the community
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14
Q

How do we get accountability under authoritarianism? (eg. China)

A
  • Informal accountability
    – Local elites face social sanctions if they fail to deliver public goods and moral standing rewards where they perform well
    – eg. Party Secretary on the donor wall of the temple
  • Where there are village temples, investment rises from 61 to 99 yuan per person
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15
Q

What are the characteristics of solidary groups?

A

Solidary groups are civil society groups that are:
- Embedding
– Politicians and bureaucrats are members
– So politicians can be rewarded
- Encompassing
– The group covers the whole political community
– So politicians are incentivized to provide public goods to all

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16
Q

How did Rwanda, Niger, Malawi, and Uganda try to fix maternal care through the principal-agent model?

A

The institutional rules and policies are the same across countries
- Making traditional birth attendants illegal
- Performance bonuses for health workers
- Health monitoring units
- Fines for failing to give birth at a clinic
- Voluntary health committees to supervise clinics

17
Q

Niger collective action for maternal health

A
  • The state provided ambulances but no fuel or drivers
  • Nurses unmotivated as they were appointed by patronage
  • Nobody cleans up the clinic
    NO collective action for development
18
Q

Rwanda collective action for maternal health

A
  • Imihigo
    – Public pledges by the President and Mayors
    – Breaking a pledge let down your community
    – Checking on progress is a citizen’s obligation
  • Ubudehe
    – Self-help to solve local problems
    – Reliance on outsides is lazy
  • Umuganda
    – Communal work
    – Rude not to participate
    – You expect others to participate
19
Q

Why was Rwanda more successful than its counterparts in improving maternal health?

A

Rwanda used collective action to make accountability mechanisms work
- Traditional informal institutions and social norms stopped free-riding

20
Q

Development as a principal-agent problem

A
  • The objectives of actors are in conflict
  • We have to incentivize some people to change their behavior
  • We need to generate accountability
21
Q

Development as a collective action problem

A
  • The objectives of actors are the same
  • The context prevents them from realizing these objectives - they are stuck in a trap
  • We need to help people coordinate
22
Q

What is the new balance reached in the assurance game on protesting?

A

The “protest, protest” payoff is increased to reflect the social rewards of cooperation
- If everyone else protests, I don’t want to miss out

23
Q

How does the assurance game change the prisoners dilemma?

A

Shifting from a single equilibrium in prisoner’s dilemma to multiple equilibria in assurance game

24
Q

How can we shift equilibria? (assurance game)

A
  • Building on latent social norms and traditional institutions, eg. Imihigo in Rwanda
  • Leading form the top to change expectations
  • A big push
  • Making information public and common knowledge
25
Q

Why did Lagos have to shift away from oil revenues? What did this lead to?

A

Lagos state was cut off from nationally-managed oil revenues in 2003
- Local tax revenue increased ten-fold in five years

26
Q

How was Lagos able to increase its tax revenue?

A

Lagos state government started delivering public services first
- Raising trust in government
- Raising expectations others are paying taxes
- Public service delivery created a norm of tax payment
- Policy feedback, creating a social contract