A new $567,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will further economist Marco Battaglini’s investigations into the dynamics of collective action problems.
 
From organizing a charity event to demonstrating against an authoritarian regime to ratifying an environmental agreement, collective action is one of the most basic and ubiquitous forms of strategic interaction in a society, said Battaglini, the Edward H. Meyer Professor of Economics in the College of Arts and Sciences.
 
But how do collective actions begin? How do people decide to join in, and what does it take to sustain a collective action? Battaglini and co-primary investigator Thomas R. Palfrey of the California Institute of Technology want to better understand how and at what point in time people decide to join in a collective action. Uncovering these dynamics could help groups better organize in order to get people to work together.

Read the full story on the College of Arts and Sciences website.