In the game theory literature, Garrett Hardin's famous allegory of the tragedy of the commons has been modeled as a variant of the Prisoner's Dilemma, labeled the Herder Problem (or, sometimes, the Commons Dilemma). This brief paper argues that important differences in the institutional...

Law and economics scholars have written extensively about how insurance markets affect the tort system. They have noted the beneficial cost-spreading function of insurance, as well as the detrimental incentive-distorting affects of insurance, stemming from problems of adverse selection and moral...

Law and economics scholars have written extensively about how insurance markets affect the tort system. They have noted the beneficial cost-spreading function of insurance, as well as the detrimental incentive-distorting affects of insurance, stemming from the problems of adverse selection and...

Property rights are fundamental to economic analysis. There is, however, no consensus in the economic literature about what property rights are. Economists define them variously and inconsistently, sometimes in ways that deviate from the conventional understandings of legal scholars and judges....

US Policy makers have made continual references to the Apollo Program as a model for development of alternative energy technologies. This model, however, is inappropriate for energy policy, and its use is termed the Apollo fallacy. The goal of the Apollo Program was the demonstration of...

Stalin's Great Terror was one of history's most massive political purges. In its form, the Terror resembled a one-shot, n-person prisoner's dilemma game. Although the Terror could not have been sustained if prisoners cooperated, most prisoners defected against one another, as the model would...