Contracting for Property Rights [Paperback]

Libecap examines the political and economic considerations that influence property rights arrangements in the USA.The histories of rights to minerals, range, timber land, fishery and crude oil production in the U.S. are examined to reveal the problems encountered in negotiations among claimants and the political and economic considerations that influence property rights arrangements.The histories of rights to minerals, range, timber land, fishery and crude oil production in the U.S. are examined to reveal the problems encountered in negotiations among claimants and the political and economic considerations that influence property rights arrangements.In this book the author examines the problems encountered in negotiations among claimants and the political and economic considerations that influence property rights arrangements. The histories of mineral rights, rights to range and timber land, and fishery and crude oil production rights in the United States are examined and reveal a surprising variety of contractual negotiations and economic outcomes. The author concludes that in addition to an analysis of distributional outcomes, an examination of the details of the political bargaining underlying property rights contracts is essential to an understanding of why rights emerge as they do. The book is an important contribution to both property rights theory and to American economic history.Series editors' preface; 1. Contracting for property rights; 2. Analytical framework; 3. Contracting for mineral rights; 4. Contracting for changes in federal land policies; 5. Contracting in fisheries; 6. Contracting for the utilization of oil fields; 7. Concluding remarks; References; Index. The case studies are enjoyable to read....Libecap has been a major contributor to the literature on the efficiency gains to be had from more specificity in property rights assignments. The book reinforces that view but more importantly addresses the more difficult question as to why societielC!