Economic Analysis of Property Rights

Author: Yoram Barzel
Published: June 1997
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521592755
Hardcover Book
Number of Pages: 161

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This is a study of the way people organize the use of resources in order to maximize the value of their economic rights over these resources. A person's economic property rights over an asset are defined here as the person's ability to gain from the asset by direct consumption or by exchange. It is prohibitively costly to measure accurately all assets' attributes; therefore, rights to them are never fully delineated. Property is consequently in danger of appropriation by others - by theft and also by excessive choosing, adverse selection, free riding, and shirking. Individuals enhance their rights (incurring transaction costs) by the protection and better delineation of their assets. In this new edition, Professor Barzel devotes a separate chapter to the firm and emphasizes the central role of equity capital as guarantor of the activities of the firm. In addition, he elaborates on the distinction between economic and legal rights and discusses the emergence of the state.

Table of Contents
Series editors' preface
Preface to the second edition
Preface to the first edition
Introduction 1
1 The property rights model 3
2 The public domain: Rationing by waiting and price controls 16
3 Contract choice: The tenancy contract 33
4 Divided ownership 55
5 The old firm and the new organization 65
6 The formation of rights 85
7 Slavery 105
8 Wealth-maximizing constraints on property rights 114
9 Property rights and non-market allocation 128
10 Additional property rights applications 139
11 The property rights model: Recapitulation 148
References 154
Index 159

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