Conference Article Abstracts & Downloads

"Heller's Gridlock Economy In Perspective" by Richard Epstein, October 2, 2009 (paper presented at the IEP Conference on the Gridlock Economy). Excerpt: "The topic of this conference is Michael Heller’s provocative new book on The Gridlock Economy.1 The central thesis of the book is that one critical obstacle to overall social advancement is the fragmentation of property among private owners that prevents its coherent assembly for projects that are desired by all but achievable by none. There is no question that, more than anyone else, Heller has put this topic on the map in its current form, chiefly through two earlier academic articles which have had immense influence on the field.2 The ability to introduce into the mature field of law and economics even a single new generative term, the anticommons on which Gridlock is based, is a major intellectual achievement..."

Spectrum Policy:

"Tragedy T.V.: Rights Fragmentation and the Junk Band Problem" by Thomas Hazlett, October 2, 2009 (paper presented at the IEP Conference on the Gridlock Economy). Excerpt: "Tragedy of the anti-commons occurs when property rules fail to enable efficient social coordination. In radio spectrum, rights issued to airwave users have traditionally been severely truncated, leaving gains from trade unexploited. The social losses that Ronald Coase (1959) asserted, appealing to basic theories of resource allocation, are now revealed via intense under-utilization of the TV Band..."

"The Wasteland: Anticommons, White Spaces, and the Fallacy of Spectrum" by Kevin Werbach, October 2, 2009 (paper presented at the IEP Conference on the Gridlock Economy). Excerpt: “I urge you, I urge you to put the people's airwaves to the service of the people and the cause of freedom. You must help prepare a generation for great decisions. You must help a great nation fulfill its future. Do this! I pledge you our help.”1 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Newton Minow’s 1961 address to the National Association of Broadcasters is legendary for its caustic dismissal of television as a “vast wasteland.”2 Yet Minow intended to emphasize a different two-word phrase: “public interest.”3 Television was the most prominent use of “the people’s airwaves” -- the government-defined capacity for wireless communication -- and it was failing to serve national interests.4...

Google Book Search:

"Google Book Search in the Gridlock Economy" by Doug Lichtman, October 2, 2009 (paper presented at the IEP Conference on the Gridlock Economy). Excerpt: "Michael Heller’s Gridlock Economy popularizes a concept that Heller has developed over nearly two decades of influential academic writing: the notion that, when it comes to property rights, too many rights-endowed cooks really can spoil the broth. I was asked in this conference to apply Heller’s insight to the Google Book Search project, and the request at first seemed natural. Heller himself has suggested that Google Book Search might be an apt poster child for the gridlock phenomenon; and Google likewise can often be heard to complain, in Heller-esque tones, that the only way to build a comprehensive search engine for books is to take the books without asking...."

"Autonomy and Independence: The Normative Face of Transaction Costs" by Robert Merges, October 2, 2009 (paper presented at the IEP Conference on the Gridlock Economy). Excerpt: "Anticommons theory made a splash, and is today being expanded and applied, because it shifted our collective attention in a crucial way. Before the 1990s, the big policy questions in IP were all about individual IP rights: when should a copyright or patent be granted, when denied? Anticommons theory burst into this conventional conversation like an unruly drunk at a ballet recital. It demanded attention. It said, in effect, “you may mean well, but you’re missing the big point. You’re wasting your time!” The big point is not the individual grant of an IP right. It’s the aggregate impact of granting many rights to many discrete and independent right-holders..."

Luncheon Keynote:

"On Being Misled by Transaction Cost Economics: Externalities, Commons, and Gridlocks" by Harold Demsetz, October 2, 2009 (paper presented at the IEP Conference on the Gridlock Economy). Excerpt: "During the last half-century transaction cost became a prominent consideration in discussions about externalities and ownership arrangements. The author of this essay contributed to this development in the earlier part of this half-century but has since come to doubt the importance of transaction cost and even the roles it is thought to play in these two areas of economic thought. A succinct statement of this doubt as it pertains to the externality problem is a primary task of this essay. The last part of the essay questions the dominant position given to transaction cost in discussions of ownership forms that now go by the names of commons, anti-commons, and gridlocks..."

Michael Heller - Columbia Law School

Michael Meurer - Boston Univ. School of Law

F. Scott Kieff - George Washington Univ. Law School

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Gridlock Conference Agenda

8:30 a.m. Public Event : The Debate Over the “Gridlock Economy”

Michael Heller - Columbia Law School

Richard Epstein - Chicago/NYU Law Schools

Eric Claeys - George Mason Univ. School of Law (Moderator)

10:45 a.m. Panel 2: What is Left of “Patent Reform” after Recent Supreme Court Decisions?

The problem of “patent blocking” has been much noted, but how serious a problem has it been for practitioners of intellectual property? In a series of a half-dozen dozen decisions over the past three year, the Supreme Court has substantially pruned patent property rights, addressing the perceived patent thicket problem. Is this cause for concern or celebration?

Michael Meurer - Boston Univ. School of Law

F. Scott Kieff - George Washington Univ. School of Law

Adam Mossoff - George Mason Univ. School of Law (Moderator)

12:30 p.m. Luncheon Keynote: Externalities, Commons, and Gridlocks

Harold Demsetz - UCLA Dept. of Economics

1:30 p.m. Panel 3: How to Salvage the TV Band “White Spaces”?  License-exempt Rules v. Exclusive Ownership of Radio Spectrum as Alternative Property Regimes

This panel weighs in the optimal rights regime in wireless, in general and with specific reference to the “mother lode” of productive bandwidth – the broadcast TV band.

Kevin Werbach - Wharton School, Dept. of Legal Studies

Thomas Hazlett - George Mason Univ. School of Law

Gerald Faulhaber - Wharton and IEP (Moderator)

3:15 p.m. Panel 4: Solutions for “Fair Use:” The Google Books Litigation as a Case Study

Doug Lichtman - UCLA School of Law

Robert Merges - UC Berkeley School of Law

Chris Newman - George Mason Univ. School of Law (Moderator)

4:45 p.m. Social Hour

Gridlock Conference Announcement

George Mason University School of Law, Arlington, Virginia

This event will explore a paradox that broadly affects the Information Economy. Property rights are essential to avoid a tragedy of the commons; defined properly, such institutions yield productive incentives for creation, conservation, discovery and cooperation.  Applied improperly, however, such rights can produce confusion, wasteful rent-seeking, and a tragedy of the anti-commons. 

This conference, building on Columbia University law professor Michael Heller’s book, The Gridlock Economy, tackles these themes through the lens of three distinct subjects: “patent thickets,” reallocation of the TV band, and the Google Books copyright litigation.

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Thomas W. Hazlett, IEP Director. Where: George Mason University School of Law, 3301 Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22201 (Orange Line: Virginia Square-GMU Metro). Admission is free, but seating is limited. Because of construction, parking is tight. See http://www.law.gmu.edu/geninfo/parking. See IEP Web page: http://iep.gmu.edu.

Directions to the GMUSL (Orange Line: Va. Square-GMU Station)

Parking options are as follows:

>> Fairfax Drive (metered street parking)

>> Foundation Building (hourly parking for GMU permit holders)

>> Truland Building (limited GMU visitor permits)

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