The Stand Ins

Long time readers of this blog may suspect — and close friends of this blogger probably know — that Okkervil River is one of my favorite bands.  This post has nothing to do with environmental economics so the rest of it goes below the fold…

If you’re so inclined…

Forget chocolate, beer and other trite abstentions. How bout cutting back on your carbon for Lent?  From across the pond.

Common pool movies

From the inbox:

http://www.thefilmconnection.org/

It’s a non-profit film library that works like Netflix or Blockbuster online, but is for free and with an emphasis on documentaries and global and social issues. Just sign up and start browsing for films and they’ll mail it to you no charge!

I checked the website FAQ and they really do appear to run on the honor system — no membership dues and no late fees — although they incentivize donations by allowing members who make a one-time $110 donation to check out three movies at a time, rather than only 1 for non-contributing members. Either way, however, there are not incentives for marginal behavior; they are relying on the good will of their members to prevent abuse of the commons. I wonder actually if donors may turn out to behave ‘worse’ — late returns, checking out movies they don’t intend to watch in a timely fashion — because they feel they have paid for the right to be boorish some leniency.

They seem to have a wide selection of films that I suspect may interest this blog’s readership.

Tragedy of the art commons

I recently read Tyler Cowen’s new book Discover Your Inner Economist. (Short review: Thought provoking, life affirming, and funny. Read it.) In a chapter on appreciating culture, he notes the dangers that overexposure poses to our appreciation for great art:

…honestly I don’t know how good the Mona Lisa is, and I don’t even know how I could know.

I am not invoking postmodern skepticism about the arbitrariness of objective value standards. … When it comes to the Mona Lisa, it is hard for any American or European today to look at the picture with fresh eyes. …

Economists call this phenomenon “the tragedy of the commons.” A tragedy of the commons occurs when individual actions, taken together, destroy the value of an asset or resource.

Tragedy of the commons problems arise among common pool resources, whose defining characteristics are that they are non-excludable (everyone has access to them) and rivalrous (my use of the resource diminishes everyone else’s ability to use it). Fisheries are a classic example: they are an open-access resource which anyone can take from, but the more fish I take, the less there are left for you to take (and, what’s worse, the less there are left for everyone (both you and me) next year when the now-reduced population can’t produce as many offspring).

Wow [update]

If you want to know what a public good sounds like, please check out Okkervil River.

I just got back from hearing them blow the doors off Rock and Roll Hotel. Amazing.

Update: More public good-ness from NPR.org: they webcast last night’s show live, and you can listen here.