Averting Tragedy of The Commons
https://phys.org/news/2016-11-game-theory-tragedies-commons-averted.html
The tragedy of the commons refers to the overuse of a public resource that inevitably leads to depletion. In the referenced examples, which show how each party’s attempt to maximize their utility ultimately ends in tragedy, the system is mostly simplified to a simultaneous decision that looks at a single point in time. In reality, the system is of a much larger scale and individuals make decisions with different information available at different points in time. The article points out that since time passes and the number of resources change, our incentives for choosing should change accordingly. By developing a new model that takes into account the changing resource levels through a feedback loop, we could more accurately predict how human behavior could affect the outcome.
With better models, we can better manage the use of public resources and create policies that offer incentives toward cooperation. Given that each individual will act in a way that maximizes their benefit, policies that levy fines for overuse or rewards for cooperation can effectively change the payout matrix and create a desired pure Nash equilibrium. By altering the game’s payout, we could potentially avert future tragedies.