Simon Levin, Princeton University

Abstract

Humans have had and are having major impacts on their environments, and one cannot consider management of natural systems without considering the coupling with socio-economic systems (Arrow, K.J.; Ehrlich 2014).  Global environmental problems in general present problems of the commons, whose solutions require “mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon.”(Hardin 1968)  However, as Ostrom showed (Ostrom 1990), the most effective approaches to this are typically bottom-up, involving social norms, insurance arrangements and other collective dynamics. (Nyborg et al. 2016; Levin 2014).   These pose unique mathematical problems with broad importance, and will be the focus of the lecture.

 Arrow, K.J.; Ehrlich, P.R. ; and S.A. Levin. 2014. “Some Perspectives on Linked Ecosystems and Socio-Economic Systems.” In Environment and Development Economics: Essays in Honor of Sir Partha Dasgupta, Ed. S. Barrett et Al., Springer-Verlag, 95–116.

Hardin, G. 1968. “The Tragedy of the Commons.” Sciences 162: 1243–48.

Levin, S A. 2014. “Public Goods in Relation to Competition, Cooperation, and Spite.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 111: 10838–45.

Nyborg, Karine, John M. Anderies, Astrid Dannenberg, Therese Lindahl, Caroline Schill, Maja Schlüter, W. Neil Adger, et al. 2016. “Social Norms as Solutions.” Science. doi:10.1126/science.aaf8317.

Ostrom, E. 1990. Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.