IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/reorpe/v48y2016i1p158-175.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Tragedy of the Anticommons in Knowledge

Author

Listed:
  • Yi Zhou

Abstract

The anticommons in knowledge is distinct from the anticommons in physical objects. The former is always tragic, the latter not necessarily so. For society at large, the tragedy of the anticommons is more serious when it involves knowledge than when it involves physical resources. Buchanan and Yoon’s (2000) formal model of the anticommons is incorrect even within the neoclassical context, and their neoliberal suggestion that single ownership is the socially optimal solution to the tragedy of the knowledge anticommons is misleading. This article argues that the only, epistemically and socially beneficial solution to the tragedy of the knowledge anticommons is to create, expand, and protect the knowledge commons. The article also constructs a simple formal model based on Bessen and Maskin’s (2006) sequential model, as a metaphor for how the comedy of the knowledge commons works. The analysis supports the worldwide movement for free knowledge, and dissents from the evolving political and academic consensus in China in favor of more restrictive intellectual property regimes.

Suggested Citation

  • Yi Zhou, 2016. "The Tragedy of the Anticommons in Knowledge," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 48(1), pages 158-175, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:48:y:2016:i:1:p:158-175
    DOI: 10.1177/0486613415586992
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0486613415586992
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0486613415586992?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Heidi L. Williams, 2013. "Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation: Evidence from the Human Genome," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 121(1), pages 1-27.
    2. James Bessen & Robert M. Hunt, 2007. "An Empirical Look at Software Patents," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(1), pages 157-189, March.
    3. Gary D. Libecap, 2011. "Institutional Path Dependence in Climate Adaptation: Coman's "Some Unsettled Problems of Irrigation"," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(1), pages 64-80, February.
    4. Robert N. Stavins, 2011. "The Problem of the Commons: Still Unsettled after 100 Years," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(1), pages 81-108, February.
    5. Feinberg, Yossi & Kamien, Morton I., 2001. "Highway robbery: complementary monopoly and the hold-up problem," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 19(10), pages 1603-1621, December.
    6. H. Scott Gordon, 1954. "The Economic Theory of a Common-Property Resource: The Fishery," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 62(2), pages 124-124.
    7. Buchanan, James M & Yoon, Yong J, 2000. "Symmetric Tragedies: Commons and Anticommons," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 43(1), pages 1-13, April.
    8. H. Scott Gordon, 1954. "The Economic Theory of a Common-Property Resource: The Fishery," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Chennat Gopalakrishnan (ed.), Classic Papers in Natural Resource Economics, chapter 9, pages 178-203, Palgrave Macmillan.
    9. Hugo Sonnenschein, 1968. "The Dual of Duopoly Is Complementary Monopoly: or, Two of Cournot's Theories Are One," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 76(2), pages 316-316.
    10. Elinor Ostrom, 2011. "Reflections on "Some Unsettled Problems of Irrigation"," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(1), pages 49-63, February.
    11. Harvey, David, 2005. "The New Imperialism," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199278084.
    12. Nirvikar Singh & Xavier Vives, 1984. "Price and Quantity Competition in a Differentiated Duopoly," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 15(4), pages 546-554, Winter.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:lic:licosd:18607 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Caleb M. Koch & Heinrich H. Nax, 2022. "Groundwater Usage and Strategic Complements: Part I (Instrumental Variables)," Games, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-19, October.
    3. Bessen James, 2009. "Evaluating the Economic Performance of Property Systems," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 5(3), pages 1037-1061, December.
    4. Van Cayseele Patrick & Reynaerts Jo, 2011. "Complementary Platforms," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-33, March.
    5. José António Filipe & Manuel Alberto M. Ferreira & Manuel Coelho & Maria Isabel Pedro, 2012. "Cooperation on Stocks Recover," International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, vol. 2(1), pages 1-74.
    6. Fuentes-Castro, Daniel, 2009. "Inefficiency and common property regimes," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1740-1748, April.
    7. Azaguagh, Ismail & Driouchi, Ahmed, 2018. "Understanding Commons and Anticommons in different economic contexts," MPRA Paper 116621, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Brown Matthew & Cardiff-Hicks Brianna, 2018. "The Tragedy of the Uncommons," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 14(2), pages 1-22, July.
    9. Norbert Schulz & Francesco Parisi & Ben Depoorter, 2002. "Fragmentation in Property: Towards a General Model," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 158(4), pages 594-613, December.
    10. Pinkerton, Evelyn & Davis, Reade, 2015. "Neoliberalism and the politics of enclosure in North American small-scale fisheries," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 303-312.
    11. John Lynham, 2012. "Ecomarkets For Conservation And Sustainable Development in the Coastal Zone," Working Papers 201218, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    12. Buchanan, James M. & Yoon, Yong J., 2004. "Majoritarian exploitation of the fiscal commons: general taxes-differential transfers," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 73-90, March.
    13. Nicolas Querou, 2018. "Interacting collective action problems in the commons," Working Papers halshs-01936007, HAL.
    14. Chia-Hung Sun & Chorng-Jian Liu, 2017. "The combination of two tragedies: commons and anticommons tragedies," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 122(1), pages 29-43, September.
    15. Gabriel Natividad, 2016. "Quotas, Productivity, and Prices: The Case of Anchovy Fishing," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 220-257, March.
    16. Troy Tassier, 2013. "Handbook of Research on Complexity, by J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. and Edward Elgar," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 39(1), pages 132-133.
    17. Berry, Kevin & Fenichel, Eli P. & Robinson, Brian E., 2019. "The ecological insurance trap," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    18. José António Filipe & Manuel Alberto M. Ferreira & Manuel Coelho, 2007. "The Tragedy of the Anti-Commons: A New Problem. An Application to the Fisheries," Working Papers Department of Economics 2007/16, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Department of Economics, Universidade de Lisboa.
    19. Bluffstone, Randy & Robinson, Elizabeth & Guthiga, Paul, 2012. "Deforestation and forest degradation are estimated to account for between 12 percent and 20 percent of annual greenhouse gas emissions. These activities, largely in the developing world, released abou," RFF Working Paper Series dp-12-11-efd, Resources for the Future.
    20. Theodore C. Bergstrom, 2010. "The Uncommon Insight of Elinor Ostrom," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 112(2), pages 245-261, June.
    21. Michael Finus & Raoul Schneider & Pedro Pintassilgo, 2019. "The Role of Social and Technical Excludability for the Success of Impure Public Good and Common Pool Agreements: The Case of International Fisheries," Graz Economics Papers 2019-12, University of Graz, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    knowledge; anticommons tragedy; knowledge commons;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B59 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Other
    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • O34 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:48:y:2016:i:1:p:158-175. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.urpe.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.