IDENTIFY the game: Prisoner’s Dilemma, Tragedy of the Commons, or Stag Hunt. EXPLAIN what helped you match the real life example to the model of conflict. If the passage does not offer a potential resolution to the conflict, OFFER your own resolution.
1) When everyone decides the public roads are the best way to meet traveling needs, the roads jam up and slow down overall traffic movement, filling the air with pollutant from idling cars. Turning public roads into private roads or toll roads creates a different scenario. With a toll to pay, especially if the toll is higher during peak hours, drivers may consider a less-direct route or choose to drive to work at a different time.
2) If everyone donates money and time, then it is possible to fund and build a new Rec Center. If everyone has their own smaller projects, however, then it’s easier to guarantee their own benefit. For example, the basketball team can raise money to fund building a new basketball court but it will not benefit teams that need other things in a new Rec Center.
3) There are two firms, X and Y, in the market who have formed a cartel. Now, if one firm decides to cheat, it will be at an advantage over the other since the consumer will prefer to buy services and products from it. Its profits will skyrocket. If both firms cheat, they end up negating the effect, and will again share the profits. On the other hand, a blissful situation will be one wherein both do not cheat and share profits. However, greed and hunger to make maximum profit may lure a firm to cheat.
4) The Grand Banks are fishing grounds off the coast of Newfoundland. For centuries, explorers and fishermen described this region as home to an endless supply of codfish. In the 1960s/70s, advances in fishing technology allowed huge catches of cod. Following a few dramatically large seasons, fish populations dropped, forcing Canadian fishermen to sail farther to maintain large catch sizes each season. By the 90s, cod populations were so low that the Grand Banks fishing industry collapsed. It was too late for regulation and management; the cod stocks had been irreparably damaged. Since then, the cod populations have remained low, and some scientists doubt the Grand Banks ecosystem will ever recover.
5) Two siblings are asking for a raise in their monthly allowance. Their parents put each child in separate rooms and ask them to reveal a secret of the other sibling unknown to the parents. If only one reveals, only his allowance will be raised. If neither of them reveals anything, they decide to divide the raise among both of them. However, if both reveal, the allowance of both will remain the same. Now, if the siblings trust each other, both might remain silent. However, if both fear that the other will spill the beans, one will definitely think that it is better off to reveal. The worst situation will be for the sibling who decides to stay silent, having trusted the other, while the other sibling does not trust him and reveals a secret to his parents.
6) 500 families are part of a lake association and enjoy living nearby a lake. They want to keep the lake clean because their kids swim in it during the summer. Unfortunately, one person dumps his garbage into the lake and spoils it for everyone. By appeal to indifference or for other reasons, the association’s committee estimates that there’s a fifty-fifty chance of cooperation from each member of the association. The association does not know how to coordinate everyone to keep the desirable outcome of a clean lake.