From the ‘Tragedy of the Commons' to the ‘Tragedy of the Commonplace'

Economics is defined so broadly in the textbooks – ‘the way resources are allocated among alternative uses to satisfy human wants’ (Mansfield, 1986) – that an economist would not be outside the profession’s domain to answer the two main policy questions addressed in this volume:

How should the benefits of biotechnology be shared with providers of genetic resources and/or associated knowledge (commonly known as access and benefit sharing (ABS))?

How should society handle genetically modified organisms (GMOs)?