================= HES POSTING ================= Two brief ideas, since I don't have access to the literature at the moment. First, one would assume that the "tragedy of the commons" problem is an important reference. I am sure that consideration of this goes at least back to Hume. Second, one should look at the two roads problem in Knight (sorry I don't have the reference). Weren't A. Young and Knight colleagues or acquaintances at Cornell? In any case, Young's critique of Pigou would have been one of Knight's starting points is his own critique of Pigou. [BRIEF INSERTION: So as not to create another message, let me just say that A. Young was Knight's dissertation advisor at Cornell and the two remained close until Young's untimely death. Young's critique of Pigou ("Pigou's Wealth and Welfare," Quarterly Journal of Economics 27 (1913): 672-86) is the first to mention the difficulty in Pigou's understanding of the relation between private and social cost. Knight's critique in the 1924 article (with the two roads example) comes after Pigou had "fixed" his theory in response to Young's criticism. -- RBE] One reference on Marshall, Pigou, and Knight is the following: Breit, Willilam and Roger L. Ransom, The Academic Scribblers, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1982.(second revised edition) Pat Gunning, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman ============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]