西方集体行动理论的演化与进展

集体利益的公共产品特性导致成员普遍的搭便车行为,形成"集体行动的困境".如何克服搭便车、走出集体行动的困境,就成为集体行动理论研究的核心内容.西方对集体行动的研究成果非常丰富,但是不同学者之间观点针锋相对、分歧很大.本文把各种观点主要归类为集体行动的理性选择理论、意识形态理论和社会资本理论三种理论流派.各种理论流派各有所长,但都有一定的局限性.     

村民投资村级公共物品的实践与理性思考

村民投资村级公共物品的前提是具有共同的利益,但共同利益的实现依赖于集体行动困境的有效破解.即克服搭便车问题。良好的村庄社会资本为投资行为提供了社会环境和基础,尤其是村庄精英及以其为中心形成的网络为村民投资的形成有积极的组织和动员作用;内部激励机制是村民投资的社会基础,能有效克服集体行动中的搭便车行为。     

农民专业合作社社员“搭便车”行为探究——基于集体行动逻辑视角

从奥尔森集体行动逻辑的角度来看,农民专业合作社社员"搭便车"行为实际体现的是社员与合作社的矛盾、"个人理性"与"集体理性"的矛盾,为了对社员"搭便车"行为进行更一般的解释,引入了合作社社员之间的博弈模型,最后基于集体行动逻辑视角提出"搭便车"行为的解决途径来更好地实现集体行动和促进农民专业合作社发展。     

中小企业集群信用危机的根源分析及对策

1、集体行动的搭便车行为。奥尔森(Mancur Olson)认为；由于搭便车行为的存在，理性、自利的个人一般不会为争取集体利益作贡献。集体行动的实现其实非常不容易。当集体人数较少时，集体行动比较容易产生。然而，随着集体人数的增大，产生集体行动就越来越困难。因为在人数众多的大集体内，要通过协商解决如何分担集体行动的成本是十分不容易的。     

领导、追随与社群合作的集体行动-行业协会反倾销诉讼的案例分析

集体行动是集体性物品生产或共享资源自发治理所引发的群体性合作问题,然而治理收益的非排他性决定了“搭便车”动机和行为的存在,导致集体行动实现的困难。本文通过引入异质性个体及其在集体行动实现过程中的策略互动来分析可能的动态博弈均衡结果,表明由于异质性的存在,决定了个体充当领导者、跟随者或者搭便车者的不同角色。本文利用这一理论模型解释了温州烟具协会应对欧盟打火机的反倾销诉讼事件。     

领导、追随与社群合作的集体行动——行业协会反倾销诉讼的案例分析

集体行动是集体性物品生产或共享资源自发治理所引发的群体性合作问题，然而治理收益的非排他性决定了“搭便车”动机和行为的存在，导致集体行动实现的困难。本文通过引入异质性个体及其在集体行动实现过程中的策略互动来分析可能的动态博弈均衡结果，表明由于异质性的存在，决定了个体充当领导者、跟随者或者搭便车者的不同角色。本文利用这一理论模型解释了温州烟具协会应对欧盟打火机的反倾销诉讼事件。     

国际公共品供给何以成为可能——基于亚洲基础设施投资银行的分析

无世界政府状态下的国际公共品供给需要跨国集体行动,以国际合作的方式实现。然而,国际公共品收益的非排他性决定了"搭便车"动机和机会主义行为的存在,导致跨国集体行动的困难。本文通过引入国家异质性及其各国在跨国集体行动实现过程中的策略互动,建立了一个分析国际公共品合作供给的动态博弈模型。结果表明,由于国家异质性的存在,决定了不同国家在跨国集体行动过程中可能充当领导者、跟随者或搭便车者的角色,从而使国际公共品供给成为可能。本文利用这一理论模型解释了亚洲基础设施投资银行得以成立的原因。     

集体行动的个体异质效应研究

在古诺-纳什均衡分析框架下,本文研究了个体异质性对集体行动效率的影响.研究结果表明:个体差异度(偏好差异、供给技术差异以及资源禀赋差异)的扩大有利于公共产品供给量的增加,但搭便车问题却随差异扩大而恶化了.相比而言,个体异质性对于搭便车的负面效应要远远大于对供给量的正面效应;同时,个体异质性也使集体行动呈现出负面的集团规模效应.现实中存在许多支持上述假说的经验证据.     

全球气候治理中“搭便车”行为的经济学分析

自气候谈判启动以来,由于"搭便车"行为的存在,全球气候治理的集体行动每每到了关键议题,就会止步不前,很难达成统一协定,于是解决"搭便车"就成了气候治理全球行动进行下去的关键。从经济学角度看,造成"搭便车"的原因主要有三点:一是气候治理的公共物品属性,二是气候治理的巨额交易费用,三是参与气候治理的成员结构。本文将对这三点进行系统梳理,为"搭便车"问题的解决提供理论准备。     

全球气候治理中“搭便车”行为的经济学分析

自气候谈判启动以来,由于"搭便车"行为的存在,全球气候治理的集体行动每每到了关键议题,就会止步不前,很难达成统一协定,于是解决"搭便车"就成了气候治理全球行动进行下去的关键。从经济学角度看,造成"搭便车"的原因主要有三点:一是气候治理的公共物品属性,二是气候治理的巨额交易费用,三是参与气候治理的成员结构。本文将对这三点进行系统梳理,为"搭便车"问题的解决提供理论准备。     

The Congressional budget process,aggregate spending,and statutory budget rules

This paper compares the Congressional budget process (instituted in 1974) and the piecemeal appropriations process that preceded it. Previous theoretical analysis using spatial models of legislator preferences finds no systematic difference in relative spending levels under the two regimes. This paper instead uses a model of interest group lobbying. A legislature determines spending on a national public good and on subsidies to sector-specific interest groups. In the “appropriations process,” the Appropriations Committee proposes a budget that, because of interest group influence, involves overspending on subsidies. In the “budget process,” the Budget Committee proposes an aggregate level of spending (the budget resolution); then, the Appropriations Committee proposes a budget. A free rider problem among the interest groups inhibits the lobbying of the Budget Committee to increase the aggregate budget. If each group is sufficiently small, it takes the budget resolution as given, and lobbies the Appropriations Committee. Aggregate spending is lower and social welfare is higher under the budget process; however, provision of the national public good is suboptimal. The paper also analyzes statutory budget rules that limit spending levels, but can be revised by a simple majority vote. Here, the free rider problem prevents the groups from securing the required changes to budget rules.     

Incentives and public inputs

Considered in this paper is a mechanism to coordinate the decision to provide a public input to a group of firms designed to overcome the ‘free rider’ problem. The coordinating agent relies on information communicated by the firms and it is shown that the mechanism provides an incentive for each firm to send truthful information so that an optimal quantity of the public input will be provided.     

“Was Hayek Right About Group Selection After All?” Review Essay of Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior,by Elliott Sober and David Sloan Wilson

One of the most controversial aspects of Hayek's social theory was his acceptance of the concept of cultural group selection. The publication of Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior provides an opportunity to revisit this much-maligned component of Hayek's thought. Sober and Wilson are concerned with biological group selection, but much of their argument is equally applicable to cultural group selection. This essay revisits Hayek's views on cultural group selection in light of the model proposed by Sober and Wilson. Comparing their model to Hayek's model suggests that group selection theories are more plausible than traditionally thought and that their viability in any given situation is an empirical, not an a priori, question. So long as there are benefits to a group from greater levels of altruism and cooperation, and so long as free rider problems can be mitigated, group selection models are plausible.     

The Private Provision of Public Goods under Uncertainty: A Symmetric-Equilibrium Approach

Various studies have examined whether increased uncertainty about the non‐Nash response of others to an individual's voluntary contribution to a public good affects that individual's contribution so as to mitigate the free‐rider problem. We extend this single‐agent approach to the analysis of a symmetric equilibrium. We provide conditions on group size and endogenous relative risk aversion that imply increased equilibrium contributions in response to greater uncertainty about the productivity of each individual's contribution to the actual level of the public good. These results enable us to broaden the circumstances in which the theory predicts that increased uncertainty reduces free riding.     

Strategic Interaction Among Local Governments in Japan: An Application to Cultural Expenditure

In the context of limited local government resources, cultural expenditures are often targeted for reduction. In Japan in particular, with its aging population, cultural expenditures have low priority. This paper examines whether or not local governments strategically influence each other with respect to cultural spending, using data from Japanese local governments. By estimating the reaction functions for local cultural expenditures, we find that there exists free‐rider behaviour between local cultural expenditures that produce beneficial spillover effects. We also find a larger free‐rider incentive the shorter the distance between neighbouring regions, the shorter the travel time between neighbouring regions, and the larger the neighbouring region's population. Furthermore, our results reveal that the provision of cultural services through intergovernmental strategic behaviours is more elastic with respect to the relative change of the distance or the travel time among neighbouring regions than to that of the population size among neighbouring regions.     

INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE IN THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF PROTECTION: LEGISLATED V. ADMINISTERED PROTECTION

In endogenous tariff theory the outcome of the political process (the tariff) is a strictly private good from the perspective of the specific-factors in an industry. That is, the benefits from participation in the political process are fully captured by the participant group. We argue that this is an institutional assumption by showing that an alternative, administered protection, involves the enforcement of a rule that, once written, is applied to all industry groups, where applicable. Attempts to increase protection therefore result in benefits to all import competing industry groups. In a short-run neo-classical model of trade with no intermediate goods, you therefore get a political free rider problem that you do not get with legislated tariffs. Further, it is argued that the distinction between these forms of protection is of both empirical and philosophical relevance.     

反倾销中的企业应诉决策分析

在反倾销中,企业个体分散的最优应诉决策带来的收益之和离企业整体的最优应诉决策带来的总收益有一定的差距,这导致企业应诉不力.企业应诉不力除了应诉结果具有非排他性导致企业的"搭便车"行为的因素外,还与每个企业的出口规模、总体出口规模及其集中度密切相关.协商是提高应诉率的途径之一,它可以优化总体出口规模与集中度的匹配关系,减轻"搭便车"行为,但其作用的发挥受协商成本大小的限制.     

Economists free ride,does anyone else?: Experiments on the provision of public goods,IV

Eleven closely related experiments testing the free rider hypothesis under different conditions, and sampling various subpopulations, are reported. Results question the empirical validity and generality of a strong version of the hypothesis. Some reasons for its failure are discussed.     

On the size and structure of group cooperation

When time preferences are heterogeneous and bounded away from one, how “much” cooperation can be achieved by an ongoing group? How does group cooperation vary with the group's size and structure? This paper examines characteristics of cooperative behavior in the class of symmetric, repeated games of collective action. These are games characterized by “free rider problems” in the level of cooperation achieved. The Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma games is a special case.We characterize the level of maximal average cooperation (MAC), the highest average level of cooperation, over all stationary subgame perfect equilibrium paths, that the group can achieve. The MAC is shown to be increasing in monotone shifts, and decreasing in mean preserving spreads of the distribution of discount factors. The latter suggests that more heterogeneous groups are less cooperative on average. Finally, in a class of Prisoner's Dilemma games, we show under weak conditions that the MAC exhibits increasing returns to scale in a range of heterogeneous discount factors. That is, larger groups are more cooperative, on average, than smaller ones. By contrast, when the group has a common discount factor, the MAC is invariant to group size.     

Young people and trade union membership: a longitudinal analysis

This paper suggests that major explanations of union membership have been flawed by the free rider paradox. It outlines a recent British theory which claims to overcome this dilemma and draws from the model hypotheses which are tested by an analysis of a longitudinal survey of London school-leavers. The findings seem to offer support for the model in its categorization of core and remainder members, and further investigation is encouraged.