Abstract
Do reciprocal ties in collaborative governance arise primarily from social capital or from risk aversion? This research addresses this research question by isolating the two mechanisms and estimating their causal effects on reciprocity using two methodological approaches. Study 1 uses a survey-based behavioral experiment with 981 municipal officials in a climate resilience partnership scenario, manipulating perceived trustworthiness and competition risk to predict reciprocal proposals. Study 2 develops an agent-based simulation of collaborative networks under varying levels of social capital and environmental risk. Both studies consistently show that social capital has a stronger and more dominant effect on reciprocity than risk, although risk still matters in sparse and fragile networks. These findings clarify the behavioral foundations of reciprocity and suggest that public managers should prioritize building trustworthy, fair relationships if they seek to sustain reciprocal collaboration in governance networks.
Figure 1: Average Treatment Effects
