Walker, James M., Roy Gardner, and Elinor Ostrom. “Rent dissipation in a limited-access common-pool resource: Experimental evidence.” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 19, no. 3 (1990): 203-211.
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This paper examines group behavior in an experimental environment designed to parallel the conditions specified in noncooperative models of limited-access common-pool resources. Using experimental methods, we investigate the strength of theoretical models which predict that users of such resources will appropriate units at a rate at which the marginal returns from appropriation are greater than the marginal appropriation costs. Our results confirm the prediction of suboptimal accrual of rents and offer evidence on the effects of increasing investment capital available to appropriators.