Common property in economics refers to a resource system, natural or man made, that possesses characteristics that make it very costly, though not impossible, to exclude potential users from deriving benefits from the resource system even when such usage results in annihilation of the beneficial properties of the resource.
The commons problem arises as a result of each independent and rational person making an individual decision to maximize the benefits accrued from a common property. The overall effect of each individual action is the destruction of the common property; each individual action meant to safeguard personal interest results in an adverse effect ...
