A 100 acre wood used by four people for collecting firewood is common property.The socially efficient use of the wood could be achieved by assigning property rights

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Assigning property rights to any or all of the four individuals would create incentives for them to use the wood in a socially efficient manner. They would have the ability to directly benefit from conserving the wood for future use, leading to less over-harvesting and a sustainable use of the resource. Dividing the property rights based on subjective factors such as who values the wood most or who has been using it the longest could lead to disagreements and inefficient use of the wood. Dividing them equally among all four users could create a tragedy of the commons scenario where each user would only have a small stake in the wood and thus have little incentive to conserve it.

A 100 Acre Wood Used by Four People for Collecting