Free rider

Third, there is the question of how unfair current price differentials in the global pharmaceutical market actually are. The authors of the previously cited Bain study proposed that Europeans should pay prices proportional to their GDP per capita (Bain Company 2005, p. 5). That idea has been echoed by most critics of the current, allegedly free rider system. There is evidence that, by and large, this criterion is actually being met. 

Determining the demand for such public goods is so difficult that economists have coined the phrase demand revelation" to describe the problem (Mueller 1989, 124-43). Some solutions have been offered, but they remain academic curiosities and are not used in real-world free-rider situations. 

What role can torts play when damages are collectively consumed Simple torts are prone to the same free-rider problems that groups face when purchasing emissions rights. If a neighbor successfully sues a company to reduce its emissions, all those who consume the air or water will benefit regardless of whether they contributed to the lawsuit costs. Class-action suits partially remedy the free-rider problem by allowing one suit to represent the diffuse interests of all the beneficiaries. ... 

Simple torts are an inadequate institutional response to public exposures because the benefits of a court decision cannot be restricted to those who bring suit. Class-action torts solve the problem by including as plaintiffs all possible beneficiaries of a successful suit. The use of class action solves the free-rider problem, but all the other trade-offs discussed in the context of torts and private exposures remain. 

Firms would likely face fewer free-rider problems than citizens, but the firms that would benefit most from emissions expansion (potential firms) would face difficulties similar to those faced by citizens. 

Elster, J. (1983) Weakness of will and the free-rider problem, Economics and Philosophy 1,231-66. 

From free riders and pirates to fair foiiowers... 

Free Trade Against Free Riders Pharma Pricing Reimbursement 9(9) 254-255. 

Reichman, J. H. 1996. From Free Riders to Fair Followers Global Competition Under the TRIPS Agreement. New York University Journal of International Law Politics 29 11. 

Figures XIIIJ and Xin.2 are atypical in that the benefits of cooperation arc shown as constant. Each additional cooperator adds the same amount to everybody s welfare. In reality, the typical situation is that the flrst and the last contributors add little, whereas those coming in the middle are more efficacious A few revolutionaries don t do much good, but when almost everyone has joined it makes little difference whether the few who are not committed do so too. Sometimes unanimity is important a single firm that undersells a cartel can comer the market if it has sufficient productive capacity. Usually, however, a few free riders will not eliminate tlic benefits.

The main elements responsible for impact have already been discussed costs in obtaining an authorisation lack of data protection and the free-rider issue once an authorisation is granted. The ultimate measure of this impact is the number of biocidal active substances and biocidal products on the EU market. This can be broken down into stages and these are discussed below. 

Collective action takes place when a group - for example a class - is capable of acting jointly to further its interests as a group, thus overcoming the free-rider problem (6.2.1). On general grounds, a satisfactory... 

In addition to rationality and foresight one might have to postulate a measure of solidarity with other capitalists to overcome the free-rider pr em that could arise in this connection. 

Although there would be no free-rider problem in a society without feudal lords, it would arise in the process of getting rid of them. 

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