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Open-Access Losses and Delay in the Assignment of Property Rights

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Author Info
Gary D. Libecap
Abstract

Even though formal property rights are the theoretical response to open access involving natural and environmental resources, they typically are adopted late after considerable waste has been endured. Instead, the usual response in local, national, and international settings is to rely upon uniform rules and standards as a means of constraining behavior. While providing some relief, these do not close the externality and excessive exploitation along unregulated margins continues. As external costs and resource values rise, there finally is a resort to property rights of some type. Transfers and other concessions to address distributional concerns affect the ability of the rights arrangement to mitigate open-access losses. This paper outlines the reasons why this pattern exists and presents three empirical examples of overfishing, over extraction from oil and gas reservoirs, and excessive air pollution to illustrate the main points.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 13642.

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Date of creation: Nov 2007
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13642

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N4 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, and Regulation
N5 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries
Q2 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation
Q28 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Government Policy
Q3 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation
Q38 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - Government Policy (includes OPEC Policy)
Q5 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics

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