The combination of two tragedies: commons and anticommons tragedies

Chia-Hung Sun () and Chorng-Jian Liu ()
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Chia-Hung Sun: Soochow University
Chorng-Jian Liu: National Taipei University

Journal of Economics, 2017, vol. 122, issue 1, No 2, 29-43

Abstract: Abstract Under a general constant elasticity of substitution (CES) function, this paper generalizes the substitution of concurrent possession of a property right—from perfect substitutes to partial substitutes to perfect complements—in the context of commons/anticommons tragedies. We demonstrate that when the possibility of substitution between property rights is relatively low, inefficiency arises in the underusage of a common resource (i.e. anticommons tragedy). When the possibility of substitution between property rights is relatively high, inefficiency arises in the overusage of a common resource (i.e. commons tragedy). When the possibility of substitution between property rights is moderate, the two tragedies (commons and anticommons) are combined and may achieve efficient usage of a common resource, which is the notion of two negatives making a positive.

Keywords: Duopoly; Complementary monopoly; Commons; Anticommons; Cournot (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H11 L12 L13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jeczfn:v:122:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s00712-017-0534-8

DOI: 10.1007/s00712-017-0534-8

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