Property rights (economics)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A property right is the exclusive authority to determine how a resource is used, whether that resource is owned by government or by individuals[1]. All economic goods have a property rights attribute. This attribute has three broad components[2][3]
- The right to use the good
- The right to earn income from the good
- The right to transfer the good to others
These rights need not be held by a single person or collective.
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.
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[edit] Property Rights Regimes
Property rights to a good must be defined, there use must be monitored, and possession of rights must be enforced. The costs of defining, monitoring, and enforcing property rights are termed transaction costs[4][5]. 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[6]
- Open access (res nullius)
- State Property
- Common Property
- Private Property
[edit] See Also
[edit] Related Terms and Disciplines
- Bundle of rights
- Legal theory of Property rights
- Law and Economics
- Transaction Costs
[edit] Economists working on property rights issues
- Armen Alchian
- Yoram Barzel
- Ronald Coase
- Steven N. S. Cheung
- Harold Demsetz
[edit] References
- ^ "Property Rights". Retrieved on 2007-01-28.
- ^ "Economics Glossary". Retrieved on 2007-01-28.
- ^ Thrainn Eggertsson (1990). Economic behavior and institutions. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-34891-9.
- ^ Barzel, Yoram. "Measurement Costs and the Organization of Markets". Journal of Law and Economics 25 (1): 27-48. Retrieved on 2007-01-28.
- ^ Douglas Allen, (1991). What are Transaction Costs? (Research in Law and Economics). Jai Pr. ISBN 0-7623-1115-0.
- ^ Daniel W. Bromley,. Environment and Economy: Property Rights and Public Policy. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Pub. ISBN 1-55786-087-4.
