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David_J_Balan comments on Disclosure vs. Bans: Reply to Robin Hanson - Less Wrong
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If trees could get together and set a limit on how tall any one tree is allowed to get, they would be better off (by expending fewer resources on growing large trunks and more resources on reproducing), even though they're all individually better off violating any limit.
Robert H. Frank uses this idea to justify several types of labor regulations in his columns and books. I just want to point out the principle here and note that similar behaviors aren't necessarily irrational.
There's a nice paper by Bengt Holmstrom (Review of Economic Studies, 1999) that has a story about inefficienty high (but still voluntary) work effort in the absence of a policy that limits effort, such as a maximum hours restriction. The idea is that no one worker can cut back effort to the efficient level without appearing to be of low ability, and this is true even though employers know that all the workers aren't as good as they appear (their high output is largely due to the fact that they work too hard, not to how good they are).