Increasing returns to scale: The solution to the second-order social dilemma.

ABSTRACT: Humans benefit from extensive cooperation; however, the existence of free-riders may cause cooperation to collapse. This is called the social dilemma. It has been shown that punishing free-riders is an effective way of resolving this problem. Because punishment is costly, this gives rise to the second-order social dilemma. Without exception, existing solutions rely on some stringent assumptions. This paper proposes, under very mild conditions, a simple model of a public goods game featuring increasing returns to scale. We find that punishers stand out and even dominate the population provided that the degree of increasing returns to scale is large enough; consequently, the second-order social dilemma dissipates. Historical evidence shows that people are more willing to cooperate with other

SUBMITTER: Ye H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4989174 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature