Der Artikel untersucht, wie das Design des Pariser Klimaabkommens verbessert werden kann. Das Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (JEEM) ist eine der führenden Fachzeitschriften für Umweltökonomik.
Title: Collective minimum contributions to counteract the ratchet effect in the voluntary provision of public goods
Authors: Marius Alt, Carlo Gallier, Martin Kesternich, and Bodo Sturm
Abstract: We experimentally test a theoretically promising amendment to the ratchet-up mechanism of the Paris Agreement. The ratchet-up mechanism prescribes that parties’ commitments to the global response to climate change cannot decrease over time, and our results show that its effect is detrimental. We design a public goods game to study whether cooperation is promoted by an amendment to the mechanism that stipulates that all agents must contribute at least a collectively chosen minimum based on the principle of the lowest common denominator. We find that binding collective minimum contributions improve the effectiveness of the ratchet-up mechanism. Non-binding minimum contributions, by contrast, do not encourage cooperation. Our data indicate that the difference is attributable to conditional cooperative dynamics. If other participants contribute less than the collective minimum contribution, even initially cooperative participants start to negatively reciprocate this form of non-compliance by contributing less.
Link zum Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (JEEM)
Link zum ZEW Discussion Paper 22-53