Property rights (economics)

A property right is the exclusive authority to determine how a resource is used, whether that resource is owned by government or by individuals [cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=Property Rights | date= | publisher= | url =http://www.econlib.org/LIBRARY/Enc/PropertyRights.html | work = | pages = | accessdate = 2007-01-28 | language = ] . All economic goods have a property rights attribute. This attribute has three broad components [cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=Economics Glossary | date= | publisher= | url =http://www.coase.org/nieglossary.htm#Propertyrights | work = | pages = | accessdate = 2007-01-28 | language = ] [cite book |author=Thrainn Eggertsson |title=Economic behavior and institutions |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK |year=1990 |isbn=0-521-34891-9 |oclc= |doi=]

:

# The right to use the good
# The right to earn income from the good
# The right to transfer the good to others

The concept of property rights as used by economists and legal scholars (see property rights) are related but distinct. The distinction is largely seen in the economists' focus on the ability of an individual or collective to control the use of the good. For example, a thief who has stolen a good would not be considered to have legal (de jure) property right to the good, but would be considered to have economic (de facto) property right to the good.

Property Rights Regimes

Property rights to a good must be defined, their use must be monitored, and possession of rights must be enforced. The costs of defining, monitoring, and enforcing property rights are termed transaction costs [ cite journal|title=Measurement Costs and the Organization of Markets|journal=Journal of Law and Economics|date=|first=Yoram|last=Barzel|coauthors=|volume=25|issue=1|pages=27–48|id= |url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-2186%28198204%2925%3A1%3C27%3AMCATOO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W|format=|accessdate=2007-01-28|month=Apr|year=1982|doi=10.1086/467005] [cite book |author=Douglas Allen, |title=What are Transaction Costs? (Research in Law and Economics) |publisher=Jai Pr |location= |year=1991 |isbn=0-7623-1115-0 |oclc= |doi=] . Depending on the level of transaction costs, various forms of property rights institutions will develop. Each institutional form can be described by the distribution of rights. The following list is ordered from no property rights defined to all property rights being held by individuals [cite book |author=Daniel W. Bromley, |title=Environment and Economy: Property Rights and Public Policy |publisher=Blackwell Pub |location=Cambridge, MA |year= |isbn=1-55786-087-4 |oclc= |doi=] :

# Open access (res nullius)
# State Property
# Common Property
# Private Property

ee also

Related Terms and Disciplines

* Bundle of rights
* Legal theory of Property rights
* Law and Economics
* Transaction Costs

Economists working on property rights issues

* Armen Alchian
* Yoram Barzel
* Ronald Coase
* Steven N. S. Cheung
* Harold Demsetz

References