We analyze a seldom used, but highly promising form of rights-based management over common pool resources that involves the self-selection of heterogeneous fishermen into sectors. The fishery management regime assigns one portion of an overall catch quota to a voluntary cooperative, with the...

This paper considers the success of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that deplete the Ozone Layer in addressing an incompletely understood global environmental hazard under risk and uncertainty, and its implications for and interactions with other global environmental protection regimes,...

The effect of insecure ownership on ordinary investment and on the exploitation of natural resources is examined. Insecure ownership is characterized as a positive probability that a typical asset or its future return will be confiscated. For empirical analysis, the probability of confiscation...

The empirical literature on the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) purports to describe how a nation’s environmental quality will evolve if it makes the transition from poverty to wealth. The popular generalization is that pollution will first increase and then, if income becomes...

We examine the relationship between resource abundance and several indicators of human welfare. Consistent with the existing literature on the relationship between resource abundance and economic growth, we find that resource-abundant countries tend to suffer low levels of human development....

A growing body of empirical research indicates that several types of pollution seem first to increase as per capita income increases and then to decline. The resulting inverted-U relationship between income and pollution has been christened the 'environmental Kuznets curve.' 1 Research on this...

A model of governance implies that democracies provide public goods at different levels than dictatorships. Systems of governance are characterized by inclusiveness—the degree to which public good decisions reflect the interests of all citizens versus an elite subset. The theory indicates...