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NGOs and Environmental Public Goods: Institutional Alternatives to Property Rights
Author(s) -
Meyer Carrie A.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
development and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-7660
pISSN - 0012-155X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7660.1996.tb00599.x
Subject(s) - economic rent , public good , property rights , monopoly , profit (economics) , private good , private sector , business , economics , public economics , market economy , economic growth , microeconomics
NGOs are linked to environmental objectives for good reason: non‐profit NGOs provide a flexible, private‐sector answer to the provision of international environmental public goods. The non‐profit sector can link for‐profit, non‐profit, and public‐sector objectives in complex contracts. This article examines how, for the case of the National Biodiversity Institute (INBio) in Costa Rica, such complex contracts with both domestic and international parties provide partial solutions to public goods problems in the absence of private property rights over genetic resources. INBio's ‘monopoly’ position, legitimized by the local government, brings in rents from genetic resources which are reinvested in the production of public goods.