Abstract Bickerton (2009, 2014) hypothesizes that language emerged as the solution to a scavenging problem faced by proto-humans. We design a virtual world to explore how people use words to persuade others to work together for a common end. By gradually reducing the vocabularies that the participants can use, we trace the process of solvingContinue reading “Language and Cooperation in Hominin Scavenging”
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Private Eradication of Mobile Public Bads
Abstract We consider analytically the non-cooperative behavior of many private property owners who each controls the stock of a public bad, which can grow and spread across spatial areas. We characterize the conditions under which private property owners will control or eradicate, and determine how this decision depends on property-specific environmental features and on theContinue reading “Private Eradication of Mobile Public Bads”
Harness the Power of Markets This Earth Day
The theme of Earth Day 2017 is Environmental and Climate Literacy; here at PERC we agree that education is a crucial part of conservation.
Mobilizing Markets to Reduce Bycatch in Marine Fisheries
Economists Steve Miller and Robert Deacon examine the management of bycatch in the U.S. West Coast groundfish fishery.
When Timber, Mining, Indigenous Use, and Conservation Collide
Lessons from southeastern Cameroon
Elk Under Fire
Can protecting elk habitat mitigate conflicts with landowners?
Regulating Our Way to Prosperity?
The use and abuse of cost-benefit analysis in regulatory decision-making.
Utah Faces Down the Rock-Climbing Industrial Complex
Companies selling outdoor gear lobby endlessly for more federal wilderness—subsidized by the taxpayer.
A New Landscape: 8 Ideas for the Interior Department
Eight policy ideas to deliver environmental and economic improvements for the nation’s lands, waters, and other natural resources.
To Protect Endangered Species, Secure Property Rights
How property rights are an effective means for conserving and recovering endangered species.