Collective Action Theory and Applications

In this work, Todd Sandler assesses the topic of collective action more than a quarter of a century after Mancur Olson's seminal contribution - "The Logic of Collective Action". Sandler focuses on three themes - group size, group competition and institutional design - and their impact on the collective's performance in optimizing their welfare. he considers developments to date and identifies areas requiring further work. He also provides an overview of empirical methods employed in studying collection action problems. Finally, he evaluates the many applications of the theory, including common property resources, military alliances, strategic trade policy, trade unions, foreign aid and public goods.