Tragedy of the Commons Game

We are doing a class project in which everyone in the class starts with 1000 units of currency, with which he may buy cows at 10 units apiece. Each student then grazes the cows on a commons. Your goal is to produce as much milk as you can by buying cows and grazing them on the commons. The commons has the capacity to support only a certain number of cows, however, before it becomes overgrazed and/or fouled and the cattle’s milk production begins to decrease. The more overgrazed the commons gets, the worse it gets for the cows, and they begin to starve, get sick and die. You are to decide how many cows you will buy to put in the commons for grazing, and the commons keeper will keep track of how many cows are in the commons, and, therefore, how everyone’s cows are doing. The commons keeper will report periodically on the status of the cows. According to these reports -- that the cows are all fine and healthy, and are producing optimally, or that they are starving, etc. -- you are to adjust your number of cows to optimize the situation. You are to determine the best way of maximizing your cows’ milk production. The commons keeper will be the T.A. for this summer ('07), Danny Chagolla. You are to send him e-mail requesting to buy cows and place them on the commons, or to remove them from the commons (if you decide, for instance, to feed them Purina cow chow), at dchagolla@chem.ucsb.edu.

Good luck!

Louis Grace