Common Pool Resources Case Study

The Commons Property

Commons, the author of The Management of Common Property Resources: Finding a Cooperative Solution Robert Wade defined this word in two categories, common property and common-pool resources. Public goods and services with infinite limited benefits respectively, namely, the amount you consumed today will have the direct impact of the availability in the future, and this is what Robert called “Common-Pool Resources”. Such examples like groundwater, coal, petroleum

In Tragedy of the Commons, Hardin began to put a focus on the point that commons problems could not be just simply addressed by technology, he claimed that such problem occurs are because of increasingly population growth and the consumption of limited resources. If the population growth is maximized, then each individual must minimized all resources. Therefore, he didn’t think there is any foreseeable technology could solve the tragedy of the commons on this planet to balance population growth and maintain life quality. He also introduced a pasture theory to demonstrate the situation of common-pool resources. Shepherd hopes to maximize their profit by adding more sheep, as result it brings a consequence with impact both positive and negative: positive impact is the shepherd can get more money from those additional sheep. And negative impact is a worse pasture. However, it’s important to note that the gains and the losses in this theory are not equal. Shepherd get all the benefits, but the losses are transformed to the rest of shepherd, thus, each shepherd will expand their flock size to maximize the profit. When all shepherds got this conclusion, and unrestricted grazing, the pasture capacity will be damaged inevitably.

Human’s selfishness or unli...

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...en the application of both economic and legal means failed to solve the problem, the state administrative controls is on stage. By imposing barriers to entry the industry is one of the most common measures taken by government. When pollution is serious, the government will adopt a more stringent measures, including forced to shut down or relocate the site. However, similarly, this measure might not work properly in developing countries. For instance, considering China as an example, even the central administrative directly command the local government to dealing with cross-regional pollution problems, they will buck-passing each other because of their own benefits.

Based on the previous analysis, it shows that there is no standard solution for the tragedy of the commons. The best decision is a decision made after a careful consideration and pass the practice tests.