The Cobra Bounty

Beschreibung

The classic story of how the British tried to reduce the snake population in India but accidentally paid people to breed them.
"The Cobra Bounty – How paying for dead snakes created more snakes" is the definitive book on the "Cobra Effect." The story is legendary: The British colonial government in Delhi was worried about the number of venomous cobras. To solve the problem, they offered a cash bounty for every dead cobra skin brought in. Initially, the snake population dropped. Economist Nikhil Scale explains the twist: Entrepreneurial locals began breeding cobras in their homes just to kill them and collect the money. When the government realized this and canceled the program, the breeders released their now-worthless snakes into the wild, tripling the original population. "The Cobra Bounty" explores how well-intentioned policies often backfire due to perverse incentives. It applies this logic to modern examples, from paying teachers for test scores (cheating) to paying for trash collection (illegal dumping). A masterclass in second-order thinking.

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Nikhil Scale
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Cobra Effect Perverse Incentives British India Economics Psychology Unintended Consequences Policy

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