The tragedy of the commons is the absence of incentives to: a) Correctly measure the marginal benefit, b) Prevent under use of the common resource, c) Prevent overuse and depletion of the common resource, d) Discover the resource, e) Prevent the free-rider problem

Answer: C

A tragedy of the commons occurs in common goods. As stated above, common goods are those that are non-excludable but rivalrous. The non-excludable portion creates an incentive for individuals to consume as much of the good as long as it benefits them. The rivarlous portion though means that while there is an incentive to consume as much as possible, the good will marginal value the more people consume it. Thus, the tragedy of the commons occurs when individual incentives are to overuse the resource and this depletes the resource for society.