@techreport{NBERw13642, title = "Open-Access Losses and Delay in
the Assignment of Property Rights", author = "Gary D. Libecap",
institution = "National Bureau of Economic Research", type =
"Working Paper", series = "Working Paper Series", number =
"13642", year = "2007", month = "November", doi =
{10.3386/w13642}, URL = "http://www.nber.org/papers/w13642",
abstract = {Even though formal property rights are the
theoretical response to open access involving natural and
environmental resources, they typically are adopted late after
considerable waste has been endured. Instead, the usual response
in local, national, and international settings is to rely upon
uniform rules and standards as a means of constraining behavior.
While providing some relief, these do not close the externality
and excessive exploitation along unregulated margins continues.
As external costs and resource values rise, there finally is a
resort to property rights of some type. Transfers and other
concessions to address distributional concer