Gary Don Libecap (born 1946) is an American economist who is currently an emeritus professor in the Department of Economics and the Bren School at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Libecap's specialty is environmental economics, and his research focuses on the role of property rights institutions in addressing the open access losses for natural resources such as fisheries and freshwater, as well as the role of water markets in encouraging efficient use and allocation. He has authored or co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed papers, lectured widely, and written articles that have appeared in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Born in 1946, Libecap received a BA in economics from the University of Montana in 1968, and a PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1976; he also served in the U.S. Air Force from 1969 to 1973. He held positions at the University of New Mexico, Texas A&M University, and the University of Arizona, before joining the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he was eventually made a Distinguished Professor, and later a professor emeritus.
Libecap is a research associate at the NBER, and was a fellow at the Hoover Institution from 2005 to 2020. He is also a senior fellow at the Property and Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana. He served as President of the Western Economic Association International in 2005;President of the Economic History Association in 2006; and President of the International Society for the New Institutional EconomicsâÂÂSociety for Institutional and Organizational Economics, 2005. Between 2010 and 2011, he served as the Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions at the University of Cambridge and 2019 Erskine Professor, University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He served on the editorial board of the Journal of Economic Behaviour & Organisation, and formerly was editor of the Journal of Economic History and on the editorial board of Explorations in Economic History.
Appointed Positions
- Member, Global Think Tank on Wild Ocean Fisheries Management, World Wildlife Fund, 2015âÂÂ2017.
- Advisory Committee: Ostrom Workshop, Indiana University, 2015âÂÂ2017.
- Advisory Group: Water in the West, Stanford Woods Institute and Bill Lane Center, Stanford University, 2015âÂÂ2017.
- Fellow, the Economics and Science Group, Australian National University, 2015âÂÂ2017.
- Advisor Committee, UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, IGCC, 2013âÂÂ16
- Member, Scientific Committee, International Center for Economic Research, Turin Italy, 2007âÂÂ2014
- Member, Advisory Committee on Environmental Research and Education, National Science Foundation, 2005âÂÂ08
- Member of various NSF research review panels.
- Board of Advisors, Ronald Coase Institute, 2000-
Books
- Contracting for Property Rights. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
- (ed. with Claudia Goldin) The Political Economy of Regulation: An Historical Analysis of Government and the Economy. University of Chicago Press and NBER, 1994.
- (with Ronald Johnson) The Federal Civil Service System and the Problem of Bureaucracy: The Economics and Politics of Institutional Change. University of Chicago Press and NBER, 1994.
- (with Lee Alston and Bernardo Mueller) Titles, Conflict and Land Use: The Development of Property Rights and Land Reform on the Brazilian Amazon Frontier. University of Michigan Press, 1999.
- (ed. with Price V. Fishback and Edward Zajac) Public Choice Essays in Honor of a Maverick Scholar: Gordon Tullock. Kluwer Academic, 2000.
- Owens Valley Revisited: A Reassessment of the WestâÂÂs First Great Water Transfer. Stanford University Press, 2007.
- (ed. with Richard Steckel) The Economics of Climate Change: Adaptations Past and Present. University of Chicago Press and NBER. May, 2011.
- (with Terry L. Anderson) Environmental Markets: A Property Rights Approach. Cambridge University Press, 2014.
- (with Robert Glennon and Peter W. Culp) Shopping for Water: How the Market Can Mitigate Water Shortages in the American West. Washington DC: Island Press.
- ed. Ariel Dinar, American Agriculture, Water Resources, and Climate Change. Chicago: University of Chicago Press and NBER, 2023.
- Where's Coase? The Implications of Economic Property Rights or Rent-Seeking in Forming Institutions. Cambridge University Press. Forthcoming 2025
Selected publications
- (with R. N. Johnson) "Contracting Problems and Regulation: The Case of the Fishery", American Economic Review, December, 1982.
- (with S. N. Wiggins) "Contractual Responses to the Common Pool: Prorationing of Crude Oil Production", American Economic Review, March, 1984.
- (with S. N. Wiggins) "Oil Field Unitization: Contractual Failure in the Presence of Imperfect Information", American Economic Review, June, 1985.
- (with S. N. Wiggins) "The Influence of Private Contractual Failure on Regulation: The Case of Oil Field Unitization", Journal of Political Economy, August, 1985.
- (with R. N. Johnson) "Bureaucratic Rules, Supervisor Behavior, and the Effect on Salaries in the Federal Government", Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, March, 1989.]
- (with R. N. Johnson) "Public Sector Employee Voter Participation and Salaries", Public Choice, January, 1991.]
- (with R. N. Johnson) , Explorations in Economic History, January, 1994.
- (with R. N. Johnson) "Courts, A Protected Bureaucracy, and Reinventing Government", Arizona Law Review, Fall, 1995.]
- (with Lee Alston and Robert Schneider) âÂÂThe Determinants and Impact of Property Rights: Land Titles on the Brazilian FrontierâÂÂ, Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, April, 1996.
- âÂÂCommon Property,â in Peter Newman, ed., The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics and the Law, 1998.
- âÂÂUnitization,â in Peter Newman, ed., The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics and the Law 1998.
- (with James Smith) âÂÂThe Self-Enforcing Provisions of Oil and Gas Unit Operating Agreements: Theory and EvidenceâÂÂ, Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, July, 1999.
- (with Ronald Johnson) âÂÂTransactions Costs and Coalition Stability under Majority RuleâÂÂ, Economic Inquiry, lead article, April, 2003.
- (with Zeynep Hansen) âÂÂSmall Farms, Externalities, and the Dust Bowl of the 1930sâÂÂ, Journal of Political Economy, June, 2004.
- âÂÂThe Assignment of Property Rights on the Western Frontier: Lessons for Contemporary Environmental and Resource PolicyâÂÂ, Journal of Economic History. June, 2007.]
- (with Jedidiah Brewer, Robert Glennon, and Alan Ker) âÂÂWater Markets in the West: Prices, Trading, and Contractual FormsâÂÂ, Economic Inquiry, April, 2008.]
- âÂÂChinatown Revisited: Owens Valley and Los AngelesâÂÂBargaining Costs and Fairness Perceptions of the First Major Water Rights ExchangeâÂÂ, Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, October, 2009.
- âÂÂOpen-Access Losses and Delay in the Assignment of Property RightsâÂÂ, Arizona Law Review, 2008.
- (with Terry Anderson and Ragnar Arnason) âÂÂEfficiency Advantages of Grandfathering in Rights-Based Fisheries ManagementâÂÂ, Annual Review of Resource Economics, October, 2011.
- âÂÂInstitutional Path Dependence in Adaptation to Climate: ComanâÂÂs âÂÂSome Unsettled Problems of IrrigationâÂÂ, American Economic Review, February, 2011.
- (with Dean Lueck) âÂÂThe Demarcation of Land and the Role of Coordinating InstitutionsâÂÂ, Journal of Political Economy, June, 2011.
- (with Dean Lueck and Trevor OâÂÂGrady) "Large Scale Institutional Changes: Land Demarcation within the British Empire", Journal of Law and Economics, November, 2011.
- âÂÂAddressing Global Environmental Externalities: Transaction Costs ConsiderationsâÂÂ, Journal of Economic Literature, June, 2014.
- with Eric Edwards and Martin Fiszbein, âÂÂProperty Rights to Land and Agricultural Organization: A United States and Argentina ComparisonâÂÂ. âÂÂJournal of Law and Economicsâ 65, February 2022.
- âÂÂWhereâÂÂs Coase? Transaction Costs Reduction or Rent-Seeking in the Formation of Institutions.â International Review of Law and Economics, Special Issue in Honor of Oliver Williamson. 2025.
References