From the field to the experimentation lab… and back

This seminar consists of three linked presentations, in which we integrate action-research participatory approaches with social experimentation to better understand collective processes of decision-making concerning common pool resources and to improve their management and governance.

An experimental research path on water management

Stefano Farolfi (PhD) will present a research trajectory that starts with action-research participatory methods for water management and passes through experimental economics in the lab and in the field. The emergence of research questions during participatory modeling processes that aim at facilitating local stakeholders participation and negotiation around natural resource management asks for the formulation of hypotheses and the implementation of experimental protocols to test these hypotheses.
Experimental methods are therefore used to study regularities observed in the field during participatory processes. These experimental methods answer the need to understand stakeholders’ behaviour and produce new training and pedagogical tools.
Once the internal validity of the protocols is checked, the external validity is looked after through lab-in-the-field experiments. A loop is then created that brings research from the field to the lab… and back to the field.

Time, Optimal Play, and Nudges: A Study of Dynamic CPR Games

Next, Dimitri Dubois (PhD), will present a concise introduction to the dynamic common pool resource game over an infinite horizon of time and its laboratory implementation. We will explore three research questions: (i) Is there an equivalence between playing the game experimentally in discrete or continuous time? (ii) Are subjects capable of following the socially optimal path? (iii) Can we assist them with nudges? Our findings indicate that experimental subjects are more successful in playing optimally in continuous time compared to discrete time. Focusing on this time’s implementation, we find that 20% of subjects significantly adhere to optimal play. However, we also observed patterns of play that are not explained by current theory. Lastly, we discovered that nudges can assist subjects in aligning closer to the optimal path, though further investigation is required.

Does relational quality in a group affect CPR management?

Marcela Brugnach (PhD), Ikerbasque Professor at BC3, will end this seminar by presenting the collaborative work done during the past years in collaboration with S. Farolfi and D. Dubois, where they have investigated the effects that the quality of relationships developed among players in a group have on how a common pool resource is managed.

About the lectures

Stefano Farolfi (PhD)

French Agronomic Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) and G-Eau in Montpellier, France

Stefano Farolfi (PhD) is a senior water economist at the French Agronomic Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD). He leads the research team PRECOS on the practices and behaviors of water users within the joint research unit G-Eau in Montpellier. He was the G-Eau Deputy Director between 2014 and 2020. Stefano spent 12 years in Southern Africa, serving as Scientific Director at the International Centre for Water Economics and Governance in Africa (IWEGA) in Maputo and Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow at the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy in Africa (CEEPA) of the University of Pretoria, where he is today an Extraordinary Professor at the Department of Agricultural Economics.

Dr. Farolfi published numerous scientific articles on the economics of water, co-edited a 2006 Earthscan book on water governance and sustainable development, a 2016 Springer book on decentralization of water governance in Africa, and a 2022 book by ‘Il Mulino’ titled ‘Good Living as Relationships Economy’. His main research interests refer to the negotiation and coordination aspects of water management and allocation and to the behavioural analysis of water stakeholders.

Dimitri Dubois (PhD)

National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Centre for Environmental Economics of Montpellier (CEE-M), University of Montpellier, France

Dimitri Dubois is a research engineer at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and holds a PhD in economics from the University of Montpellier. He is in charge of the experimental economics platform at the Centre for Environmental Economics of Montpellier (CEE-M). Since 2020, he has also been the deputy director of this research unit. With a focus on common pool resource management and social preferences, his main research interests are behavioral and experimental economics. Dimitri Dubois has published several articles in international economic journals such as Economic Modelling, Public Choice, Environmental and Resource Economics, Applied Economics, and the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, as well as in more general scientific journals such as The Lancet Public Health, PlosOne One, and Scientific Reports.

Marcela Brugnach (PhD)

Ikerbasque Professor at BC3

Ikerbasque research professor in collective decision-making processes under uncertainty. I have a multidisciplinary education, with doctoral studies in both Ecology and Bioresources Engineering (Oregon State University, USA, 2003), and in Computer Sciences MSc level (Universidad Nacional del Centro, Argentina, 1991). Adding to this education, I have two decades of international experience, working in interdisciplinary projects connecting engineering, modelling and social sciences with policy and decision-making: 6th EU Framework Program NeWater (New Approaches to Adaptive Management under Uncertainty); AquaStress (Mitigation of Water Stress through new Approaches to Integrating Management, Technical, Economic and Institutional Instruments); EcoShape Building with Nature (BwN) programme; MEDUWA INTERREG Vecht(e) Deutchland-Nederland; Beyond Technologies (Van Braun Stiftung); ReAshore (NWO). Before coming to BC3, I worked at the University of Twente (Netherlands, 2009-2019), the University of Osnabrück (Germany, 2005-2009) and the University of California Davis, USA (2004).

My research focuses on the topic of uncertainty in collective decision-making processes in the management and governance of common pool resources; topics that I address from both, theory and practice. I have authored more than 90 publications, including 35 peer reviewed articles, 9 book chapters, and more than 50 conference proceedings and several reports and professional publications. My work, has been published in high impact factor journals, like Global Environmental Change, Environmental Modelling & Software, Environmental Science and Policy, Ecology & Society among others.