I asked, mostly rhetorically:
> ... overfishing is a example of market failure that's well known
> even among neoclassicals (the "tragedy of the commons"). Why don't
> they respond?
Louis quotes the Wikipedia:
Overfishing can be viewed as a case of the tragedy of the commons; in
that sense, solutions would promote property rights, such as
privatization and fish farming. Daniel K. Benjamin, in Fisheries are
Classic Example of the "Tragedy of the Commons", cites research by
Grafton, Squires, and Fox to support the idea that privatization can
solve the overfishing problem[12]:
According to recent research on the British Columbia halibut
fishery, where the commons has been at least partly privatized,
substantial ecological and economic benefits have resulted. There is
less damage to fish stocks, the fishing is safer, and fewer resources
are needed to achieve a given harvest.
These days there are two main approaches to the common resource
problem: (1) splitting up the resource to make them privately-owned
property (what might be called "enclosure" or privatization) and (2)
top-down government regulation. The usual argument against #1 is that
it's often really expensive to break up common resources to make them
private. Also, monopoly ownership might result, so that a
profit-seeking firm plays the role of the government, combining #1 and
#2, except that the "government" isn't responsive to voters.
Another approach is that of Elinor Ostrom. In her _Governing the
Commons_, she argues against this either/or approach. She talks a lot
about intermediate-level organizations, e.g., coalitions of fishing
companies that collectively regulate the fishing bank in order to
avoid overfishing. This was the approach of peasant communities in
England before the "Enclosure Movement" and many Native American
communities in avoiding over-hunting before us white folks invaded.
my rhetorical question had an answer: most economists don't give a
shit about overfishing and the like.
--
Jim Devine / "The price one pays for pursuing any profession or
calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side." -- James Baldwin
