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1. Instructions for
the 1st set of rounds

2. You have an opportunity to earn some money by engaging in today’s decision exercise.
Please follow all instructions—this may help the chance of earning more money.
We are interested in how key stakeholders make decisions about a public infrastructure service that has been disrupted by a major event.
The decisions will involve you and 3 other players in a group. You will remain anonymous.
• There is a public water supply system that provides water to homes in an area.
- There is one Provider who is in charge of the system maintenance.
- There are three Users consume water delivered by the system for basic
necessities such as drinking and cooking, which affects their benefit.
• The better maintained the public water supply system is through the Provider’s
investment, the higher the benefit is to Users.
• Some time ago, a major disruptive event happened in the area. This unexpected
event caused significant damages to the public water supply system. This event
introduced unpredictable fluctuations in the performance of this system.
• You will be randomly assigned to one of the four players (3 Users and 1 Provider).
Your role will NOT be changed during the entire exercise.
The basic model of the decision exercise
Introduction

3. What are decision options available to the players in each round?
Users have three options:
• PAY for the service “as is” despite fluctuations in the performance
of the water supply system.
• PETITION (or complain) about the system’s performance to the
provider while still paying for the service.
• EXIT (or leave) the area and settle in a different area where they
have access to an unaffected public water supply system.
The Provider collects fees paid by the Users to maintain the water
supply system. The Provider has two options for how to use the
collected fees:
• FULLY INVEST leads to better system performance compared to
minimal investment.
• MINIMALLY INVEST allows the Provider to keep a larger share of
the collected fees as its earning.
You and 3 other players will play multiple
rounds with these decision choices

4. The system performance and the benefit to Users
When a FULLY INVESTMENT is made towards maintenance, the system performance is at 80% on average, but the
actual performance can vary from round to round between 60% and 100%.
As a result, the benefit to Users will also vary from round to round between 11 tokens and 15 tokens.
When MINIMALLY INVEST is made for maintenance, the system performance is at 50% or below.
As a result, the benefit to Users is reduced to 5 tokens.
When system performance is less than 100%, users
spend time and energy to complement the public
supply by purchasing water from alternative private
sources (i.e., bottled water or water tanker deliveries).
This reduces their benefit.

5. What are User’s decision options and earning outcomes?
• At the beginning of each round, each User is endowed with 10 tokens.
• Each User then decides what to do with this endowment among three options: PAY, PETITION, and EXIT.
• If a User decides to PAY 10 tokens to the Provider, there are two possible outcomes:
1) Under FULL INVESTMENT  a User’s earnings will vary from round to round between 11 and 15 tokens, with an average of 13 tokens.
2) Under MINIMAL INVESTMENT  a User will earn 5 tokens as his or her benefit.
• Users may choose to PETITION while still paying the Provider. Note that PETITION is costly to both Users and the Provider as it implies the use of
additional time and energy to making and handling the PETITION. The resulting benefit to the User will be deducted by 2 tokens for making PETITION.
1) Under FULL INVESTMENT  a User’s earnings will vary from round to round between 9 and 13 tokens, with an average of 11 tokens.
2) Under MINIMAL INVESTMENT  a User will earn 5 tokens as his or her benefit.
• If a User chooses to EXIT the area and does not pay to the Provider, then the User will earn 10 tokens for certain.
Under some circumstances, this selection may involve a cost for relocation (This will be explained in the next page).

6. Relocation cost and the EXIT option
• The options PAY and PETITION mean that a user is staying in the areaand is using the public water supply that has been disrupted.
• The option EXIT means a user is staying outside the area and is using an unaffected public water supply elsewhere.
• Note that when this decision exercise starts (at the beginning of round 1), it is assumed that all Users are present in this area.
• There are three possible outcomes of the EXIT option:
1) A User who has chosen PAY or PETITION and thus stayed in the area in the previous round may leave the area by choosing EXIT in the current
round. When this happens, the User bears an “exit” or relocation cost of 5 tokens.
This leads to a net benefit of 5 tokens for certain.
2) A User who has chosen EXIT and thus stayed outside in the previous round may re-enter the area by choosing PAY or PETITION in the current
round. When this happens, the User bears a “re-entry” or relocation cost of 5 tokens.
This re-entry cost will be deducted from whatever benefit obtained from PAY or PETITION in that round.
3) A User who has chosen EXIT and thus stayed outside in in the previous round may remain outside the area by choosing EXIT again in the
current round. When this happens, there is no relocation cost and the net benefit will be 10 tokens for certain.

7. What are Provider’s decision options and earning outcomes?
• The Provider may FULLY INVEST in the maintenance of the public water supply system. This results in an average system performance of 80% with
fluctuations in the actual system performance from round to round between 60% and 100%.
- To FULLY INVEST, the Provider will spend 15 tokens from the collected fees.
• Alternatively, the Provider may MINIMALLY INVEST in the system maintenance. This results in a system performance of 50% or below. To MINIMALLY
INVEST, the Provider will spend 5 tokens from the collected fees.
• In both cases, the remaining of the collected fees becomes the Provider’s earnings.
• Note that the Provider’s earnings will be deducted by 5 tokens for each User choosing PETITION. This is because the Provider needs to spend time and
resources to handle such petitions from users.
• Note also that the Provider’s earnings can NOT be less than zero in this experiment.
30 tokens (2 Users PETITION & 1 User PAY)
– 15 tokens (INVEST FULLY)
– 10 tokens (Two PETITIONs)
5 tokens (Provider’s earning)
Provider
MINIMALL
Y
INVEST
FULLY
INVEST
Receive tokens
Users
Decision Earning
All received tokens – Full investment (15 tokens) – 5 tokens * Total number of
PETITIONs
All received tokens – Minimal investment (5 tokens) – 5 tokens * Total number of
PETITIONs
Example: Suppose that 2 Users choose PETITION and 1 User
chooses PAY. The Provider decides to INVEST FULLY. Then, the
Provider will earn 5 tokens (see the box below).
What happens if invested tokens > received tokens?
• If the Provider invests 15 tokens but receives less than 15 tokens from users,
its earning will be zero and the system performance will be 50% or below.
• If the Provider invests 5 tokens for minimal investment but receives less
than 5 tokens from users, its earning will be zero and the system
performance will still be 50% or below.

8. Time Constraint
 Make your decision within 1 min
 After this, you will see a warning message for 1 min
 If you need more time, please click Continue and get extra 1 min
Please note that there is a time constraint for decision
making in each round.

9. Next, you will take a short quiz and play 2 practice rounds of the decision exercise.
After that, you and 3 other players will play the first set of rounds of this decision exercise.