Sustainability 2012, 4(8), 1776-1786; doi:10.3390/su4081776
Article

The Tragedy of the Commons from a Game-Theoretic Perspective

Florian K. Diekert 1,2 email
1 Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), Department of Biology, University of Oslo, Postbox 1066, 0316 Oslo, Norway 2 Department of Economics, University of Oslo, P.O. 1095, 0317 Oslo, Norway
Received: 25 June 2012; in revised form: 30 July 2012 / Accepted: 3 August 2012 / Published: 13 August 2012
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tragedy or Transcendence: Reflections on 'The Tragedy of the Commons')
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Abstract: Twenty years after the declarations from the Earth Summit in Rio, the world faces an unattenuated host of problems that threaten the goal of sustainable development. The challenge to cooperatively solve socio-ecological problems has been portrayed in Garrett Hardin’s essay “The Tragedy of the Commons”. While this paper remains controversial, it has inspired a vast number of theoretical, experimental, and empirical contributions that have clarified the mechanisms of collective action problems and suggested ways to overcome these. This article reviews the recent game-theoretic research in this field.
Keywords: game theory; renewable resources; tragedy of the commons

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MDPI and ACS Style

Diekert, F.K. The Tragedy of the Commons from a Game-Theoretic Perspective. Sustainability 2012, 4, 1776-1786.

AMA Style

Diekert FK. The Tragedy of the Commons from a Game-Theoretic Perspective. Sustainability. 2012; 4(8):1776-1786.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Diekert, Florian K. 2012. "The Tragedy of the Commons from a Game-Theoretic Perspective." Sustainability 4, no. 8: 1776-1786.

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