This paper, written as a contribution to a festchrift in honor of Neil Komesar, subjects his "comparative institutional analysis" (CIA) to a comparative analysis with various other social-scientific approaches to CIA. Neil Komesar is among the very few legal scholars who has taken to heart...

This updated draft paper explores the significant role Regulatory Cost-Benefit Analysis (RCBA) plays in facilitating or impeding collective action. Through case studies, the paper shows that well-constructed RCBAs have (1) facilitated collective action (including in cases where explicit...

"Takings" are usually understood as government-imposed restraints on preexisting private property rights. But this is myopic. A cursory examination of actual takings cases reveals that disputes often arise where existing public and private property rights collide: where private lands meets...

The shift to competition in utility generation is likely to generate "stranded investments," which are wealth transfers between investors and utility ratepayers. Stranded investments can take either of two forms: (1) "stranded costs" are a transfer from investors to ratepayers that occur when...

Environmental protection and resource conservation depend on the imposition of property rights (broadly defined) because in the absence of some property system - private, common, or public - resource degradation and depletion are inevitable. But there is no universal, first-best property regime...

The “Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change” reached conclusions and policy recommendations dramatically different from most of the earlier economic analyses of climate change. It found that the costs of climate change, as well as the potential net benefits of greenhouse gas...

This study covers property law and property rights, providing a full summary and comprehensive bibliography of the existing law, together with discussion from an economic perspective on the most important aspects of property law. Leading experts have brought together their knowledge and insight...

This book by Daniel Cole and Elinor Ostrom, winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics,shows how property rights systems affect the use of scarce natural resources. It is a richsource of information for those involved in conservation, land dispute resolution, landmarket regulation, public...