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Using Common‐Pool Resource Principles to Design Local Government Fiscal Sustainability
Author(s) -
Tang ShuiYan,
Callahan Richard F.,
Pisano Mark
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
public administration review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.721
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1540-6210
pISSN - 0033-3352
DOI - 10.1111/puar.12273
Subject(s) - sustainability , fiscal sustainability , situational ethics , common pool resource , per capita , government (linguistics) , public economics , collective action , corporate governance , economics , resource (disambiguation) , business , general partnership , local government , reciprocity (cultural anthropology) , politics , political science , public administration , fiscal policy , finance , microeconomics , macroeconomics , sociology , computer science , population , philosophy , law , ecology , computer network , linguistics , biology , demography , anthropology
This article analyzes local government fiscal sustainability as a common‐pool resource ( CPR ) problem. Comparing the experiences of Los Angeles County, San Bernardino City, and San Bernardino County, California, the analysis applies a framework developed from three decades of CPR research to show the importance of six micro‐situational variables—communications with the full set of participants, known reputations of participants, high marginal per capita return, entry or exit capabilities, longer time horizon, and agreed‐upon sanctioning capabilities—in shaping collective action dynamics and building the trust and reciprocity among stakeholders needed to achieve fiscal sustainability. The underlying contextual conditions for these micro‐situational variables vary based on specific socioeconomic and political settings, but the findings suggest that institutions and processes can be designed based on several well‐tested principles in CPR governance to encourage stakeholders to look beyond their immediate self‐interests and make decisions that account for the community's long‐term fiscal sustainability .