The Locker Problem - Efficiency and Morals

Nowadays if one would tries to find a free locker in the basement locker room of the Grimm Zentrum library of the Humboldt-Universität at some point in the late afternoon, one may face a problem. There is a shortage of free lockers with keys on them - in fact about one third of the lockers are open with missing keys. The library says 450 keys are missing at the moment.

Since no deposit is required for the lockers, one could always close the locker and take the key. In the evening all lockers are opened and emptied, yet that is not a problem for the key-thieves. They can leave the locker empty, close it with the key and come back on the next morning with the stolen key and thus secure themselves a free locker. No wonder that it is the tall, spacious lockers, which are proportionately the biggest subject of key theft.

If an economist could get angry, it would be in the moment when one is looking for a free locker and doesn't find any, yet sees hundreds of them wide open and free, just with missing keys. It is a huge efficiency loss, since a locker could be used many more times during the day if not solely a subject to one library visitor, who is insolent and selfish enough to take the key when leaving.

The problem has gradually escalated... the free-riding dilemma and the immoral attitude of some encouraged even more students to behave in such a manner. A shortage of lockers at some moment would make one take a free key when the available moment comes in order to avoid future inconveniences. 

The library security has not been able to deal with the problem so far. The free lockers are essentially a public good and since the library users are not paying for this service, they tend to abuse it. No regulatory mechanism has been implemented to deal with the problem.

The imperfect system clearly calls for some alternative - lockers with deposit money is one efficient method - if one places 2 Euros in order to lock one's things, one would not be ready to lose the 2 Euros when not taking one's belongings at the end of the day. Everybody needs to have 2 Euros every time when entering the central library, yet since students are not courteous and considerate towards their fellows, such measures would restore the efficient functioning of the locker system.  Another possibility is having lockers, which would require the individual to bring one's own lock... there is thus no monopoly of the key-thieves, since one cannot reserve a specific space.

There seems to be no moral incentive, which would prevent corrupt behavior of locker-keys free-riding. The key thieves certainly don't think of themselves as great criminals. The individual act may seem innocent and unimportant yet it has disastrous consequences in the aggregate.