> it's one [market failure] that I heard > about in grad school (concerning > common-property resources or common-pool > resources).
Julio:
If it concerns *common* property, how can it be a *market* failure? Markets presuppose private property.
Oh, I see. Well instead of being called a market failure, it might be called an example of how market-type rationality (possessive individualism) conflicts with inherently social resources (like fish in the sea). But I still think it's an example of market failure: the fishing boats are owned individually while the fishing firms compete, just like in a market, but the individual property rights in other assets (the fish) are imperfectly defined. It's a market failure as we of the Econ tribe typically use the term: a deviation of the real-world market from the idealized Walrasian world. Of course, this is just a matter of useless argument over the meaning of words... -- Jim Devine / "The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side." -- James Baldwin
