IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jocore/v60y2016i7p1312-1340.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

When Does Informal Enforcement Work?

Author

Listed:
  • Stine Aakre
  • Leif Helland
  • Jon Hovi

Abstract

We study experimentally how enforcement influences public goods provision when subjects face two free-rider options that roughly parallel the nonparticipation and noncompliance options available for countries in relation to multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). Our results add to the MEA literature in two ways. First, they suggest that compliance enforcement will fail to enhance compliance in the absence of participation enforcement. Second, they indicate that compliance enforcement will boost compliance significantly in the presence of participation enforcement. Our results also add to the experimental literature on public goods provision, again in two ways. First, they reveal that previous experimental findings of enforcement boosting cooperation are valid only in settings with forced (or enforced) participation. Second, they show that subjects’ willingness to allocate costly punishment points is significantly stronger when the enforcement system permits punishment of both types of free riding than when it permits punishment of only one type.

Suggested Citation

  • Stine Aakre & Leif Helland & Jon Hovi, 2016. "When Does Informal Enforcement Work?," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 60(7), pages 1312-1340, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jocore:v:60:y:2016:i:7:p:1312-1340
    DOI: 10.1177/0022002714560349
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022002714560349
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0022002714560349?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Astrid Dannenberg & Andreas Lange & Bodo Sturm, 2014. "Participation and Commitment in Voluntary Coalitions to Provide Public Goods," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 81(322), pages 257-275, April.
    2. Scott Barrett & Robert Stavins, 2003. "Increasing Participation and Compliance in International Climate Change Agreements," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 3(4), pages 349-376, December.
    3. Andreoni, James & Croson, Rachel, 2008. "Partners versus Strangers: Random Rematching in Public Goods Experiments," Handbook of Experimental Economics Results, in: Charles R. Plott & Vernon L. Smith (ed.), Handbook of Experimental Economics Results, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 82, pages 776-783, Elsevier.
    4. Downs, George W. & Rocke, David M. & Barsoom, Peter N., 1996. "Is the good news about compliance good news about cooperation?," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 50(3), pages 379-406, July.
    5. Tallberg, Jonas, 2002. "Paths to Compliance: Enforcement, Management, and the European Union," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 56(3), pages 609-643, July.
    6. Bratberg, Espen & Tjotta, Sigve & Oines, Torgeir, 2005. "Do voluntary international environmental agreements work?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 583-597, November.
    7. Evan J. Ringquist & Tatiana Kostadinova, 2005. "Assessing the Effectiveness of International Environmental Agreements: The Case of the 1985 Helsinki Protocol," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 49(1), pages 86-102, January.
    8. Todd Cherry & David McEvoy, 2013. "Enforcing Compliance with Environmental Agreements in the Absence of Strong Institutions: An Experimental Analysis," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 54(1), pages 63-77, January.
    9. Ahn, T.K. & Isaac, R. Mark & Salmon, Timothy C., 2009. "Coming and going: Experiments on endogenous group sizes for excludable public goods," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1-2), pages 336-351, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Andrés Pazmiño & Silvia Serrao-Neumann & Darryl Low Choy, 2018. "Towards Comprehensive Policy Integration for the Sustainability of Small Islands: A Landscape-Scale Planning Approach for the Galápagos Islands," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-29, April.
    2. Jon Hovi & Hugh Ward & Frank Grundig, 2015. "Hope or Despair? Formal Models of Climate Cooperation," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 62(4), pages 665-688, December.
    3. Jon Hovi & Tora Skodvin, 2017. "Why the United States Supports International Enforcement for Some Treaties but not for Others," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(2), pages 79-92.
    4. Guri Bang & Jon Hovi & Tora Skodvin, 2016. "The Paris Agreement: Short-Term and Long-Term Effectiveness," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(3), pages 209-218.
    5. Andreas Kokkvoll Tveit, 2021. "Does capacity increase compliance? Examining evidence from European cooperation against air pollution," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 323-345, June.
    6. Andreas Kokkvoll Tveit, 2018. "Can the management school explain noncompliance with international environmental agreements?," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 491-512, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andreas Kokkvoll Tveit, 2018. "Can the management school explain noncompliance with international environmental agreements?," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 491-512, August.
    2. David McEvoy, 2013. "Enforcing compliance with international environmental agreements using a deposit-refund system," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 481-496, November.
    3. Tobias Böhmelt & Jürg Vollenweider, 2015. "Information flows and social capital through linkages: the effectiveness of the CLRTAP network," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 105-123, May.
    4. Carsten Hefeker & Michael Neugart, 2016. "Policy deviations, uncertainty, and the European Court of Justice," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 547-567, December.
    5. Sarah Al Doyaili & Leo Wangler, 2013. "International climate policy: does it matter? An empirical assessment," Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(3), pages 288-302, November.
    6. Fabio Franchino & Camilla Mariotto, 2021. "Noncompliance risk, asymmetric power and the design of enforcement of the European economic governance," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(4), pages 591-610, December.
    7. Liliana B. Andonova & Ioana A. Tuta, 2014. "Transnational Networks and Paths to EU Environmental Compliance: Evidence from New Member States," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 775-793, July.
    8. Tobias Böhmelt & Tina Freyburg, 2013. "The temporal dimension of the credibility of EU conditionality and candidate states’ compliance with the acquis communautaire, 1998–2009," European Union Politics, , vol. 14(2), pages 250-272, June.
    9. Isaksen, Elisabeth Thuestad, 2020. "Have international pollution protocols made a difference?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    10. Ederington, Josh & Paraschiv, Mihai & Zanardi, Maurizio, 2022. "The short and long-run effects of international environmental agreements on trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    11. Benassi, Chiara., 2011. "The implementation of minimum wage : challenges and creative solutions," ILO Working Papers 994629883402676, International Labour Organization.
    12. Benassi, Chiara, 2011. "The implementation of minimum wage: Challenges and creative solutions," GLU Working Papers 12, Global Labour University (GLU).
    13. Thomas König & Bernd Luig, 2014. "Ministerial gatekeeping and parliamentary involvement in the implementation process of EU directives," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 160(3), pages 501-519, September.
    14. Nabin Baral & Joel T. Heinen, 2020. "Regulatory Compliance of Community-Based Conservation Organizations: Empirical Evidence from Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-21, November.
    15. Aakvik, Arild & Tjøtta, Sigve, 2011. "Do collective actions clear common air? The effect of international environmental protocols on sulphur emissions," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 343-351, June.
    16. Ryan M. Welch, 2019. "Domestic politics and the power to punish: The case of national human rights institutions," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 36(4), pages 385-404, July.
    17. Herbst, Luisa & Konrad, Kai A. & Morath, Florian, 2015. "Endogenous group formation in experimental contests," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 163-189.
    18. Derek Kellenberg & Arik Levinson, 2014. "Waste of Effort? International Environmental Agreements," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 135-169.
    19. Stine Aakre & Jon Hovi, 2010. "Emission trading: Participation enforcement determines the need for compliance enforcement," European Union Politics, , vol. 11(3), pages 427-445, September.
    20. Christopher Marcoux & Johannes Urpelainen, 2012. "Capacity, not constraints: A theory of North-South regulatory cooperation," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 7(4), pages 399-424, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jocore:v:60:y:2016:i:7:p:1312-1340. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://pss.la.psu.edu/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.