The Tragedy of the Anticommons | The Wealth of the Commons - 0 views
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Let’s start with something familiar: a commons.
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commons
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commons
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wasteful overuse is a tragedy of the unmanaged commons
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creating private property
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If cooperation fails, nobody can use the resource.
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Each one can block the others’ use
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a hidden tragedy of the anticommons.
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a brief overview of the anticommons lexicon
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three basic types: private, commons, and state property
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private property
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private property is about an individual decision maker who directs resource use.
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Commons property refers to shared resources, resources for which there is no single decision maker.
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open access
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open access
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group access
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State propert
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process that is, in principle, responsive to the needs of the public
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Privatizing a commons may cure the tragedy of wasteful overuse, but it may inadvertently spark the opposite.
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too many people can block each other from creating or using a valuable resource. Rightly understood, the opposite of overuse in a commons is underuse in an anticommons.
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clear rights and ordinary markets are not enough
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Wasteful underuse can arise when ownership rights and regulatory controls are too fragmented.
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The anticommons parallel to open access is full exclusion in which an unlimited number of people may block each other.
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With full exclusion, states must expropriate fragmented rights or create hybrid property regimes so people can bundle their ownership
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differs from open access: an anticommons is often invisible
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group exclusion in which a limited number of owners can block each other. For both group access and group exclusion, the full array of market-based, cooperative, and regulatory solutions is available.
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For group exclusion resources, the regulatory focus should be support for markets to assemble ownership and removal of roadblocks to cooperation.
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Much of the modern economy – corporations, partnerships, trusts, condominiums, even marriages – can be understood as legally structured group property forms for resolving access and exclusion dilemmas
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drug patents
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“if commons leads to ‘tragedy,’ anticommons may well lead to ‘disaster’”
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underuse caused by multiple owners is unfamiliar
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we need to name the phenomenon: the tragedy of the anticommons should join our lexicon.
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Heller, M. 1998. “The Tragedy of the Anticommons: Property in the Transition from Marx to Markets.” Harvard Law Review. 111:621.