This is a substantially revised, refocused, and updated version of an earlier draft paper, exploring the significant role Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) plays in facilitating or impeding legislative and regulatory policy decisions. The paper centers around three case studies of CBAs EPA prepared...

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...

This short paper written for a symposium issue of the Property Law Review on "Research Methods in Property Law," provides a concise introduction to the ways in which property rights (and duties) structure economic relations and, in turn, are influenced by economic considerations. Among the...

Economists and legal scholars have known for decades that "economic instruments," including cap-and-trade regimes and effluent taxes, can reduce emissions at lower cost than command-and-control regulations. Yet, the US system of environmental law remains heavily dominated by command-and-control....

Global governance institutions for climate change, such as those established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, have so far failed to make a significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions. Following the lead of Elinor Ostrom, this paper offers an...

This paper, prepared for a Lincoln Institute conference on "Evolution of Property Rights Related to Land and Natural Resources," and the forthcoming book Property in Land and Other Resources (D.H. Cole and E.Ostrom, eds, forthcoming 2011, Lincoln Institute), argues that, contrary to both the...

Chapter 1 of my book SELLING HOT AIR: EMISSIONS TRADING AND OFFSETS (forthcoming CUP 2011) describes the theory and practice of emissions trading and offsets. Chapter 2 then examines and exposes the flaws in the Kyoto Protocol's comprehensive trading and offset systems. The present chapter...

Climate change presents the greatest collective action problem the international community has yet confronted. The unequal distribution of expected costs and benefits from climate change (based on mean damage estimates from probability distribution functions) creates different incentives for...

The UK's Treasury's "Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change" (Oct. 2006) reached dramatically different conclusions and policy recommendations than most earlier economic analyses of climate change. It found that the costs of climate change, as well as the potential net benefits of...