By sdohrn, published at 6 August 2008 - 6:56pm, last updated 47 weeks 1 day ago.

This week's Economics Focus on The Economist is entitled Commons Sense and talks about the study of the commons and the IASC conference.

Charlotte Hess and Elinor Ostrom are quoted, and the article comes to the conclusion that the study of the "traditional" commons might teach us something about how to handle new commons including many global commons such as the atmosphere or the world's oceans:

The economics of the new commons is still in its infancy. It is too soon to be confident about its hypotheses. But it may yet prove a useful way of thinking about problems, such as managing the internet, intellectual property or international pollution, on which policymakers need all the help they can get.

There is already a small discussion on the Economist website and Jay Walljasper posted a short commentary on OntheCommons.org.

Add your own thoughts to the discussion on OntheCommons, on the Economist website, or here in the comments.

--- cross posted to CAPRi News