Should Common Property Resources be Privatized? A Re-Examiniation of the Tragedy of the Commons

Abstract

"To many observers, environmental resources nowadays are said to be patently over-exploited owing to an inappropriate property regime, which leads to a Tragedy of the Commons. In this perspective, privatization is often recommended as the best efficiency-improving measure. In the present paper however, we contend that there are in fact numerous conditions for this proposition to hold true and that they are not likely to be met in reality. Moreover, we argue that even if we stick to the standard efficiency criterion, it may be essential to lend attention to equity considerations."

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Keywords

tragedy of the commons, privatization, common pool resources

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