The ability to cooperate in collective action problems — such as those relating to the useof common property resources or the provision of local public goods — is a key determinant ofeconomic performance. In this paper we discuss two aspects of collective action problemsin developing...

Effective provision of public goods is a key determinant of quality of life. Conventional approaches to poverty measurement look only at private goods, butthis view is too narrow. Access to safe drinking water, sanitation, transport,medical care, and schools is essential both as a direct...

This paper provides an analytical framework for exploring the relationshipbetween equity and efficiency for two riparians sharing a transboundary river.Decreasing marginal productivities of water make a noncooperative approach inefficientwhen water is scarce. If the upstream riparian uses its...

We extend the simple model of voluntary public good provision toallow for two or more public goods, and explore the new possibilitiesthat arise in this setting. We show that, when there are many publicgoods, voluntary contrib...

We exploit the aggregative structure of the public good modelto provide a simple analysis of the voluntary contribution game. Incontrast to the best response function approach, ours avoids the pro-liferation of dimensions as the number of players is increased, andcan readily analyse games...

Open source software production is a successful new production model in which a public good is voluntarily provided. We argue that by studying this new production model we gain valuable insightfor organization theory beyond software production.(...)

Open source software production is a succesful new innovation model in which a public good is voluntarily provided. We argue that by studying this new innovation model we gain valuable insigth for innovation theory beyond software production.

People behave pro-socially in a wide variety of situations that standard economic theory is unable to explain. Social comparison is one explanation for such pro-social behavior: people contributeif others contribute or cooperate as well....