Saturday, August 02, 2008
Good to know
Commons problems are everywhere, often right before our noses. This week's Economist includes "Commons Sense ... Why it still pays to study medieval English landholding and Sahelian nomadism". The piece cites Elinor Ostrom's work and the many examples of spontaneous cooperation to resolve commons abuse. (My own favorite is Robert Ellickson's Order without Law: How Neighbors Settle Disputes.)And who knew that "[b]efore he died, Hardin admitted that he should have called his article 'The Tragedy of Unmanaged Commons'"?
