The tragedy of the commons is the:
A)undersupply of a public good due to consumers not paying the full value of the good.
B)disappearance of certain markets due to the public's lack of willingness to pay.
C)depletion of a common resource due to individually rational, but collectively inefficient, overconsumption.
D)notion that common resources are generally underconsumed and therefore not regularly produced due to artificially low demand.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The tragedy of the commons refers to the situation where individual users, acting independently according to their own self-interest, deplete or spoil shared resources through their collective action. This concept is often used to describe environmental issues like overfishing, deforestation, and air pollution, where the resource is accessible to all but no single entity has the incentive or ability to conserve it, leading to overconsumption and eventual depletion.

The Tragedy of the Commons Is The