In a recent publication in Ecological Economics, Stephan Geschwind and Johann Graf Lambsdorff explore how resource scarcity influences human behavior. They conduct a novel lab experiment that simulates an environment with exploitable resources to study the extent of hostility. The study finds that hostility increased towards players responsible for overexploiting resources, i.e., when scarcity was human-induced. Conversely, environmentally induced scarcity mitigated hostility. These findings offer important insights for policymakers. They suggest that the climate crisis may escalate or mitigate hostility and violence, depending on whether it is perceived as being caused by human actions or natural factors.

The article can be accessed via the following link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108388

The corporation became the dominant form of firm in the 19th century, but its nature and advantages are still poorly understood. A recent article "The advantages of the corporate form - an impossibility theorem on persons and things" by Johann Graf Lambsdorff in the Cambridge Journal of Economics provides a game-theoretic proof of these advantages. To achieve these, the corporation had to be given legal capacity, treating it as a person, and be transferable, treating it as a thing. A classic dichotomy between persons and things. This dichotomy had to be overcome in order to secure the advantages of the corporation.

The article can be accessed via the following link: https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/beae003