Spotlights
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Property Rights and Natural Resource Management
SpotlightRead MoreHarold Demsetz’s "Toward a Theory of Property Rights,†American Economic Review (May 1967, reprinted in Eirik G. Furobotn and Svetozar Pejovich, eds., The Economics of Property Rights, 1974) is a major contribution to the economists’ approach to property rights. In his essay, Demsetz drew on important historical and anthropological information to illuminate the development of property rights among native Americans. What is important here is a talented economist’s sensitive use of this historical material. Demsetz applies the research of scholars concerned with...
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Managing the Commons
SpotlightRead MoreManaging natural resources that are held in common is a great and grave challenge. It requires addressing the community of users, beneficiaries, and managers. It also requires consideration of how those communities interact with the commons itself. At stake is the prosperity, and even survival, of both the people and the environment.
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Green Blueprint for America
SpotlightRead MoreEnvironmentalists agree that while we have made progress in certain special areas such as water pollution, the regulations associated with the first Earth Day movement have failed to protect nature from general deterioration. The movement advocated two types of changes: greater sensitivity toward our environment and greater governmental command and control regulation over it.
