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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Institutions Matter: Why The Herder Problem Is Not A Prisoner's Dilemma, Peter Grossman, Daniel Cole
Institutions Matter: Why The Herder Problem Is Not A Prisoner's Dilemma, Peter Grossman, Daniel Cole
Peter Z. Grossman
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 structures of the standard Prisoner’s Dilemma and Herder Problem render the two games different in kind. Specifically, institutional impediments to communication and cooperation that ensure a dominant strategy of defection in the classic Prisoner’s Dilemma are absent in the Herder Problem. Their absence does not ensure that players will achieve a welfare-enhancing, cooperative solution to the …
U.S. Energy Policy And The Presumption Of Market Failure, Peter Grossman
U.S. Energy Policy And The Presumption Of Market Failure, Peter Grossman
Peter Z. Grossman
The article presents an analysis of U.S. energy policy, focusing on the question of whether it is able to correct market failures in terms of alternative energy sources. The question of whether any such market failures exist is said to be a separate question, and an argument is presented that governments generally are not competent to fix such problems even when they do exist. A discussion of U.S. energy policy from the early 1970s to the 21st century is presented. Programs designed to encourage technological innovations such as biofeuls, nuclear fusion, and electric vehicles are analyzed.