1.3 — Property Rights and Transaction Costs — Class Content

Overview

Readings

Required Reading

• Demsetz, 1967, “Toward a Theory of Property Rights”

Optional/Referenced Reading

• Calabresi and Melamed, 1972, “Property Rules, Liability Rules, and Inalienability: One View of the Cathedral”
• Roth, 2007, “Repugnance as a Constraint on Markets”

Recommended Reading

• Economic Forces: What is the Deal with NFTs?
• William Bradford, 1623, Of Plymouth Plantation, “Property”
• TED Ideas: Why barbed wire — yes, barbed wire — was as transformative as the telephone
• The Spectrum Auction: How Economists Saved the Day

Questions to Guide Your Reading

• What are the benefits and costs of property rights?

• Why don’t we make everything property? Why might we leave some things un-“propertized”?

• What is the relationship between property rights and externalities?

• How is this article related to Coase’s article?

Slides

Below, you can find the slides in two formats. Clicking the image will bring you to the html version of the slides in a new tab. Note while in going through the slides, you can type h to see a special list of viewing options, and type o for an outline view of all the slides.

The lower button will allow you to download a PDF version of the slides. I suggest printing the slides beforehand and using them to take additional notes in class (not everything is in the slides)!

Download as PDF