Property Rights
Busy Bees cartoon (11/2/2011)
Honey bees tell an interesting story of how businesses settle payments for spillover costs and benefits among them.
Coasian Bargaining & Property Rights (10/5/2017)
Efficient assignment of property rights could achieve efficient adverse impact without negotiation cost and Coasian bargaining.
Condom Economics (3/7/2007)
The externality and time horizon of costs and benefits bedevil college distribution of condoms.
Congestion Pricing (1/10/2007)
Road tolls that vary directly with congestion have reduced peak-hour traffic volume in Singapore and Stockholm by forcing commuters to internalize congestion cost.
Dying for Money? (12/7/2000)
Compensated physician-assisted death could reduce end-of-life health care expenditures and reduce pain and suffering.
Enforce It or Lose It (12/21/2001)
Dutch property owners hire free antisquatters to prevent squatters from occuping vacant buildings.
External Benefit and External Cost (11/2/2011)
External cost and external benefit exist because some property rights have not been clearly defined and enforced. Their existence leads to misallocation of resources.
External Benefit and External Cost (transcript) (3/27/2007)
The existence of external cost and external benefit leads to misallocation of resources.
Fished Out! (2/9/2001)
By assigning fishing quotas to individual fisherman, Iceland has solved the problem of over-exploitation typically associated with open access to common-pool resources.
Licensing Textbooks (1/14/2006)
Unbundling the intellectual content from the physical embodiment of textbooks might lower the prices of textbooks.
Making Animal Conservation Pay (6/29/1999)
People will conserve wildlife if they have a financial stake in it.
Metered Consumption (3/7/2007)
Resource conservation depends on who pays and the time horizon of costs vs benefits.
Owners, Keepers? (12/8/2000)
Stronger property rights may reduce overexploitation of natural resources that require little upfront capital investment, but may lead to faster exploitation of resources that require substantial upfront capital investment.
Patently Deadly (3/7/2002)
Granting patents to biotechnology discoveries encourages inventions but could delay the introduction of competing products.
Property Rights and Externality (7/7/2006)
Transferable and enforceable property rights encourage investment and high-valued uses.
Right Makes Might (2/27/2001)
The right to transfer private property has led to windfall gain to right owners and better allocation of scarce resources, such as water and power.
Rivalry and Excludability in Goods (8/15/2006)
Goods can be classified by their consumption rivalry and ability to exclude non-payers.
Scoop Your Poop (11/2/2011)
Enforceable property rights reduce external costs.
Scrapped Art (3/7/2007)
High prices of copper have led to theft of bronze sculptures for material recycling.
Shovelers Keepers? (6/7/2004)
Uncertain property rights will lead to either underinvestment or unnecessary disputes.
Spillovers Are Not Always Externalities (6/22/2006)
External costs or benefits exist only if property rights have not been clearly defined and/or when the negotiation or enforcement cost exceeds damage.
Squatters' Rights (1/23/1999)
Squatters move in when cost of accessing and hoarding scarce resources are low. They profit from charging others for the use of hoarded resources.
The Dust Bowl - Natural or Man-made Disaster? (12/21/2001)
High transaction costs, whether natural or artificial, could delay the transfer of property rights from lower-value use to higher-value use.
The Patent Fence (2/26/2005)
Most business process patents serve only to slow down business progress without encouraging more inventions.
The Right to Pollute? (10/20/1999)
Pollution credits convert the atmosphere from a commons into private property. They can reduce pollution if the pollution cap is lower than the unrestricted total and lower the costs of reducing pollution if credits can be sold from low-cost avoiders and high-cost avoiders.
The Sharing Economy (3/11/2014)
The peer-to-peer rental and sharing economy could lead to more efficient allocation of scarce resources and a cleaner economy.
The Soviet Union - Super Power or Paper Tiger? (4/14/2000)
The dismal transition of the centrally planned Soviet economy to a market economy results from the collapse of an effective government with an encompassing interest and the non-existence of secure property rights.
The Tragedy of the Anticommons (8/13/1999)
When too many individuals have the right of exclusion to a scarce resource, and no one has an effective privilege of use, under-utilization may occur.
The Tragedy of the Popsicle Commons (2/15/2001)
Over-exploitation of commons resources could be avoided if the rights to commonly owned resources are assigned to individual owners.
Tragedy of the Commons (11/2/2011)
Unlimited entry could easily lead to over-exploitation of commons resources.
Tragedy of the commons (transcript) (3/27/2007)
Narrated lecture on over-exploitation of commons resources due to unlimited entry.
Water Disputes in California (4/14/2000)
Ambiguous property rights and high transaction costs may scuttle beneficial exchanges.
What Makes Rights? (12/21/2001)
Temporary property rights created out of sympathy or a preference for insiders over outsiders might become politically entrenched.
Windfall Profit (9/7/2005)
Unexpected market gain resulting from uncontrolled circumstances might serve as incentives to correctly allocate scarce resources.
Yellow Cabs, Red Tape (6/22/2006)
Transferable fixed-supply permanent taxi licenses result in high taxi fare and poor service with only normal return to current license owners.
Your Customers Are My Customers (11/2/2011)
When it comes to external benefits, appearance could be deceptive.