Resource Scarcity and Cooperation: Evidence from a Gravity Irrigation System in China
Resource scarcity has become an increasingly pressing challenge to the world. How scarcity affects people’s preferences and behavior has been taken as an important issue for development. This study examines the impact of long-term exposure to resource scarcity on farmers’ cooperation. Specifically, we focus on water scarcity in irrigation agriculture, and examine the effect of water scarcity on cooperation in the context of a gravity irrigation system in western China.