What is the Collective Action Problem?

The economic theory of collective action is concerned with the provision of public goods (and other collective consumption) through the collaboration of two or more individuals, and the impact of externalities on group behavior. It is more commonly referred to as Public Choice. The foundational work in collective action in the economic sense was Mancur Olson's 1965 book The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups.