Industrial grain production, driven by large-scale monoculture and intensive use of synthetic inputs, has become a cornerstone of global food systems. However, its environmental, social, and economic sustainability is increasingly called into question. The depletion of soil health, biodiversity...

Human cooperation is ubiquitous and instinctive. We are among the most cooperative species on Earth. Still, research mostly focuses on why we cooperate, instead of understanding why some of us do not do so. The public goods game can be used to map human cooperation as well as to study free...

We leverage quasi-experimental variation to study how group size influences free-riding behavior within a high-expense environment. When buildings lack apartment-specific heat meters, tenants use simple heuristics to split a common bill. We estimate that the staggered rollout of a corrective...

Open data has been heralded as bringing great benefits to businesses and individuals alike in the EU, enabling the emergence of a data agile Europe and a society empowered by data. However, such arrangements are far from being free of disadvantages, especially for the citizens of smart cities....

This paper presents a first conceptualization for decentralized project delivery through the combination of blockchain technology and common pool resource governance theory, also known as the "crypto commons". While previous literature on project delivery models identifies the use of...

This paper posits that what has been currently understood as a new return of industrial policies is actually a vague and rhetorical usage of the notion, as the current framework lacks the proper understanding of industrial policies as instruments to firstly, orient the rate and direction of...

This paper revisits the Tragedy of the Commons - a Pareto-dominated overuse of a common resource - through the lenses of Stoicism, and, in particular, of the Stoic discipline of desires, according to which one should wish for nothing that is not under one's control. When the Stoic discipline of...

Negative Emissions Technologies (NETs) - a range of methods to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere- are a crucial innovation in meeting temperature targets set by international climate agreements. However, mechanisms which undo the adverse consequences of short-sighted actions (as NETs)...

Many developing countries depend crucially on open-access renewable natural resources (NR). Trade is generally viewed as hurting the long-term health of NR in commodity-exporting countries. I examine whether trade might be beneficial in the case of population growth. Dynamic general equilibrium...

The rise of Global China or the rapid expansion of Chinese influence abroad has had a commensurate impact on transnational trade and related commercial pressure in the governance of natural resources in Africa. Rosewood with its direct link to China's cultural renaissance has had a boost in...

The present work is a collection of essays. The first one is new, written for the collection. Then follows 7 separate essays of varying age. They are named * On the classifications of property rights * A property rights perspective on institutional change in the welfare state * On the nature of...

Exploitation of natural resources such as oil and gas fields, coal and water basins are very important in the economic growth of countries. The importance of this issue for countries, especially the common natural resources, is twofold. Exploitation of common resources between countries is of...

In this study, we provide causal evidence on the capacity of monetary incentives to encourage real-life local leaders managing water and land to improve their procedural fairness. We report results from incentivized decisions and surveys conducted with local leaders in rural Namibia (n=64) and...

Many developing countries depend crucially on open-access renewable natural resources (NR). Trade is generally viewed as hurting the long-term health of NR in commodity-exporting countries. I examine whether trade might be beneficial in the case of population growth. Dynamic general equilibrium...

One of the key elements of well-being of rural residents is the development of rural social infrastructure. Measures for the development of rural areas often do not take into account the opinion of rural residents themselves, which leads to their dissatisfaction. The level of cohesion and...

The two questions I seek to address in these pages are what is public property and why does it matter. Public property, like property more generally, is a powerful legal arrangement of allocating control and use rights with respect to resources. Unlike private property, public property does not...

Commons problems present behavioral dilemmas, with tensions between individual and collective rationality. When users of a common-pool resource are not effectively excluded, the collective behavior of individuals pursuing their self-interests dissipates resource rents. We derive a non-parametric...

Humanity's problem with climate change has been likened to a "tragedy of the commons". If the atmosphere is seen as an open access dump for gasses like CO2 or methane, Garret Hardin's conclusion from 1968: "Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all" is obviously correct. But how do we create a...