Terry L. Anderson is the President of the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. His work helped launch the idea of 'free market environmentalism' with the publication of his book by that title, co-authored with Donald Leal. Dr Anderson's work emphasizes that private property rights encourage resource stewardship by harnessing the incentives of free enterprise to protect environmental quality. Anderson is the author or editor of 37 books including, most recently, Tapping Water Markets with Brandon Scarborough and Lawrence R. Watson. He has published widely in both professional journals and the popular press and has received many awards for his research and teaching. He received his PhD in economics from the University of Washington. Gary D. Libecap is Donald Bren Distinguished Professor of Corporate Environmental Management in the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management and Professor of Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He also is Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, MA; the Sherm and Marge Telleen Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University; and Senior Fellow at PERC, Bozeman, Montana. His research focuses on the role of property rights institutions in addressing the 'Tragedy of the Commons'. He received his PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

'Two of the world's leading scholars on property rights and the environment offer a timely reminder that government is not always an effective steward of natural resources when markets fail at this task, and offer a rich review of the myriad creative ways in which market forces can be harnessed to improve environmental quality. The book's fresh perspective on the question of how best to solve problems ranging from climate change to overfishing reminds economists and their students to 'look before they leap', with regulation as a solution.' Sheila M. Olmstead, University of Texas, Austin

• 1. Who owns the environment?; 2. Is government regulation the solution?; 3. Property rights for the common pool; 4. Local property rights to the commons; 5. The politics of property rights; 6. From property rights to markets; 7. Tackling the global commons; 8. Property rights, property rights, property rights.