Polycentric Governance and Decentralized Decision-Making for Pervasive Spectrum Sharing

Sharing of wireless spectrum is a techno-economic challenge increasing in its importance as the common-pool resource of cellular spectrum is decreasing at a worrisome rate. Researchers as well as policymakers are focused on improving the utilization and efficiency of spectrum due to its static allocation, lack of appropriate regulatory policies, and emerging public management challenges. Polycentric governance provides a framework possessing a multitude of institutional attributes with the capacity to provide essential explanation power for this complex policy and governance problem. Polycentric governance can assist by promoting a decentralized decision-making structure incorporating diverse stakeholders and their interactions in the current spectrum ecosystem. It also incorporates a scientific basis translated for each stakeholder to assist in decision-making and generating regulations and incentives that can operate on multiple levels. This paper applies polycentric governance to spectrum sharing and explores a game-theoretic framework for modeling effectiveness.