IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/afj/journ4/v11y2026i2p12-14.html

Commons governance as a determinant of development returns

Author

Listed:
  • Jonathan Stilwell

    (FirstRand Group Treasury)

Abstract

This article reframes commons governance as a balance sheet concern for capital allocators, shaping whether returns reflect value creation or resource depletion. Drawing on commons theory and simple bioeconomic intuition, it outlines how misaligned incentives generate latent risks. Practical due diligence tests are proposed to help DFIs and long horizon investors identify mispricing before deterioration appears in financial metrics. “Micro rationality often leads to macro irrationality, as evidenced by the paradox of thrift, the tragedy of the commons, the prisoner’s dilemma, the tyranny of small decisions, and the arms race. — Herman Daly (1996, p. 113)

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Stilwell, 2026. "Commons governance as a determinant of development returns," Development Finance Agenda, Chartered Institute of Development Finance, vol. 11(2), pages 12-14.
    • Handle: RePEc:afj:journ4:v:11:y:2026:i:2:p:12-14
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/ejc-defa_v11_n2_a3
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:afj:journ4:v:11:y:2026:i:2:p:12-14. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk De Doncker (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/afrgrza.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.