[PEN-L:3488] Re: Tragedy of the Commons <36CA4D61.361687D2@igc.org> <v04003a00b2f08a22b618@[128.32.105.161]> <36CAE717.DA3AE265@ecst.csuchico.edu>

[Peter Dorman <dormanp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I too am all for Ostromized cooperative management of common property
resources, but the Oglalla acquifer spans too large an area to be
managed that way.  Unsustainable water mining is a problem in large
parts of the plains and arid west and demands far-reaching policies
which will affect settlement patterns and not merely agricultural
techniques.  I agree with Brad that choices will have to be made at
higher levels, and one argument for using prices to implement them is
that any other system would be draconian.  (Note: this does not mean
that markets in water as a commodity are the answer, because the common
resource problem, the discounting problem, environmental
interactions/nonconvexities all point to market failure at the level of
the whole system.  I am advocating using prices as a transmission
mechanism for decisions made by other means.)

My position is one of unblemished virtue in this discussion, of course,
because I live in the pacific northwest, currently soaked with water.

Peter Dorman

Michael Perelman wrote:
>
> Hardin's story is a myth.  In truth, the communities that he describes had
> customs and institutions that kept the amount of livestock in check.  But after
> the land became privatized all hell broke loose.
>
> Brad might be correct about his understanding of the wells, but I want to
> correct his historical allusion (illusion) about the tragedy of the commons.
> --
>
> Michael Perelman
> Economics Department
> California State University
> michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Chico, CA 95929
> 530-898-5321
> fax 530-898-5901