As co-blogger Jonathan Adler notes, Nobel Prize-winning economist and legendary law and economics scholar Ronald Coase passed away today at the age of 102. Coase was the author of such foundational articles as “The Problem of Social Cost,” and “The Nature of the Firm.” His contributions to scholarship are so massive that it is hard […]
Archive | Collective Action Problems
Elinor Ostrom, RIP
I join those mourning the passing of Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom. She will be greatly missed. In this 2009 post written soon after she won the prize, I described the significance of her pathbreaking work on collective action and tragedy of the commons problems, which has had a huge influence on economists, political scientists […]
Pitfalls of the Collective Action Theory of Constitutional Federalism
By Ilya Somin on May 29, 2012 10:05 pm in Collective Action Problems, Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate
Co-blogger Jonathan Adler points out several weaknesses in the collective action theory approach to interpreting constitutional federalism advocated by a number of academics, most notably Robert Cooter and Neil Siegel. The theory has been used as a tool for defending the constitutionality of the individual mandate, though I have argued that it may actually cut […]
Jeffrey Rosen’s Proposed Limiting Principles for Federal Power
By Ilya Somin on May 29, 2012 5:44 pm in Collective Action Problems, Commerce Clause, Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate
In a recent response to critics of his earlier column on the individual mandate case, Jeffrey Rosen claims that upholding the individual mandate would not lead to unlimited congressional power because “Congress [still] cannot use its commerce power to regulate activity that has no substantial effects on interstate commerce and where there are no collective […]
What Collective Action Federalism Is and Is Not
By Neil Siegel, guest-blogging on August 9, 2011 9:54 am in Collective Action Problems, Commerce Clause, Federalism
I congratulate Ilya Somin on the arrival of Willow. My daughters stand ready to babysit your beautiful pooch. In this post, I will clarify the theory of collective action federalism by offering four points about what the theory is and is not. First, collective action federalism is not a comprehensive structural account of American constitutional […]
The Theory of Collective Action Federalism
By Neil Siegel, guest-blogging on August 8, 2011 9:58 am in Collective Action Problems, Commerce Clause, Federalism
I thank Eugene Volokh for inviting me to blog about my work in this highly regarded venue. Today, I will present the theory of collective action federalism, which I have developed with Robert Cooter of Berkeley Law in a recent article. Tomorrow, I will clarify what the theory is and is not. Later in the […]
Collective Action Federalism
Like Eugene Volokh, I too look forward to the upcoming guest-blogging stints by Kurt Lash and Neil Siegel. It so happens that I recently reviewed Robert Cooter and Neigl Siegel’s outstanding article “Collective Action Federalism” on Jotwell, a website where legal scholars review important new scholarship. Here’s an excerpt from what I said: Robert Cooter […]
Cancun and Copenhagen, and Carbon as Pure Regulatory Object
By Kenneth Anderson on November 29, 2010 11:05 am in Climate Change, Collective Action Problems, Economy, Environment, International Law
Co-Conspirator Jonathan has already remarked below on the seeming collapse of the media-academic-NGO-international organization-et al. global warming coalition in-between last year’s Copenhagen meeting and this year’s much-subdued Cancun event. I broadly agree with Jonathan, and with Margaret Wente, on whom he comments, on the policy merits. I also think the right approach to climate change […]
Do We Need Global Governance To Combat Global Warming?
By Ilya Somin on December 21, 2009 8:11 pm in Climate Change, Collective Action Problems, Global Governance/World Government, International Law
The recent Copenhagen Conference on global warming has led to renewed claims that we cannot effectively combat global warming without “global governance,” or perhaps even a full-fledged world government. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon recently claimed that “A [climate change] deal must include an equitable global governance structure” and many other political leaders and environmental […]
AsteroidGate – For Real?
From Wired: Any number of undiscovered near-Earth objects could one day careen into the Earth, and there is a lot of talk here at the American Geophysical Union meeting about tracking them. So far, though, only one discovered object has seemed even mildly likely to hit our planet.That asteroid is Apophis, a 900-foot asteroid. Calculations […]
Copenhagen as UN Politics, Not Climate Change Substance
By Kenneth Anderson on December 19, 2009 2:42 pm in Climate Change, Collective Action Problems, International Law, Legal Scholarship
(Updated below … Give me global oligopoly or give me climate death!) I Post-Copenhagen. At bottom, the question is legitimacy. The global New Class met in Copenhagen, convinced, as ever, that it had legitimacy to act as it proposed to act, with the UN as its vehicle, because legitimacy was conferred by “expertise.” The UN […]
The Climate Change Fund as the New Millennium Development Goals?
By Kenneth Anderson on December 16, 2009 10:13 pm in Climate Change, Collective Action Problems, International Law
Ever since the Copenhagen conference got going, and rapidly turned into an argument over wealth transfer from the rich world to the poor world, it has seemed to me that the exercise is best understood not as an argument about climate change, but instead about internaitonal economic development policy. That is, the basic problem with […]
Survival of the Fattest and the Global Superfluous Poor in the Negotiations in Copenhagen
By Kenneth Anderson on December 10, 2009 10:08 am in Climate Change, Collective Action Problems, Economy
One of the minor brouhahas at Copenhagen has been over one of the many pieces of public art put up for the conference, Survival of the Fattest, sculpted by artist Jens Galschiot (2004), sponsored by sevenmeters.net. (I am putting up an image from a blog I frequently read, the “I am a middle-aged gay libertarian […]
Noah Sachs Responds to Anderson re Copenhagen and Collective Action
By Kenneth Anderson on November 30, 2009 10:36 pm in Climate Change, Collective Action Problems, Economy, Environment, International Law, Politicizing Science
Noah Sachs, over at PrafsBlawg, is kind enough to respond to my post on the Copenhagen meetings and collective action problems. It is worth reading the whole thing, but here is a chunk of it. (If you comment, please remember that Professor Sachs is my guest here, so be courteous. And my thanks to him […]
How Are the Copenhagen Talks Supposed to Overcome Collective Action Problems?
By Kenneth Anderson on November 29, 2009 7:42 pm in Climate Change, Collective Action Problems, Environment, International Law
Let me leave aside for the moment all the leaked memos and stuff. I would describe myself as a non-expert on climate issues who has been gradually persuaded to the following positions: Agnostic on the question of warming and human impact on it; Getting less agnostic as I read the emails and leaked materials; Unpersuaded […]