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The politics of land property rights

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  • Cai, Meina
  • Murtazashvili, Ilia
  • Murtazashvili, Jennifer

Abstract

Legal reforms that improve the security of private property rights to land have characteristics of a public good with dispersed benefits. However, nothing ensures that the state will provide property protection as a public good. Some states provide property protection selectively to powerful groups. Others are unable to provide property protection. In this paper, we argue that whether the state provides property protection as a public good, selectively, or cannot establish private property rights depends on the following features of politics: political stability, government capacity to administer and enforce private property rights, constraints on political decision-makers, and the inclusivity of political and legal institutions. We illustrate the theory using evidence from reforms that increased opportunities to privately own land in the US from the late eighteenth through nineteenth centuries, selective enforcement of land property rights in China, and the absence of credible legal rights to land in Afghanistan.

Suggested Citation

  • Cai, Meina & Murtazashvili, Ilia & Murtazashvili, Jennifer, 2020. "The politics of land property rights," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(2), pages 151-167, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jinsec:v:16:y:2020:i:2:p:151-167_4
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Alston, Eric & Crepelle, Adam & Law, Wilson & Murtazashvili, Ilia, 2021. "The chronic uncertainty of American Indian property rights," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(3), pages 473-488, June.
    2. Zehua Wang & Fachao Liang & Sheng-Hau Lin, 2023. "Can socially sustainable development be achieved through homestead withdrawal? A hybrid multiple-attributes decision analysis," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-18, December.
    3. Kerianne Lawson, 2023. "Using property rights to fight crime: the Khaya Lam project," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 47(2), pages 269-302, June.
    4. Peter J. Boettke & Rosolino A. Candela, 2021. "János Kornai, the Austrians, and the political and economic analysis of socialism," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 187(1), pages 85-97, April.
    5. Yang, Chen & Qian, Zhu, 2022. "The complexity of property rights embedded in the rural-to-urban resettlement of China: A case of Hangzhou," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    6. Burns, Anthony Francis & Rajabifard, Abbas & Shojaei, Davood, 2023. "Undertaking land administration reform: Is there a better way?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    7. Le, Minh Khue & Zhu, Jieming & Nguyen, Hoang Linh, 2022. "Land redevelopment under ambiguous property rights in transitional Vietnam: A case of spatial transformation in Hanoi city center," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    8. Ghimire, Puspa Raj & Devkota, Niranjan & Marasini, Tek & Khanal, Ghanashyan & Deuja, Jagat & Khadka, Umesh, 2024. "Does joint land ownership empower rural women socio-economically? Evidence from Eastern Nepal," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    9. Gregory W. Caskey & Ilia Murtazashvili, 2022. "The predatory state and coercive assimilation: The case of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 191(1), pages 217-235, April.
    10. Dongshui Xie & Caiquan Bai & Hong Yan & Weixuan Song, 2022. "Legal land transfer rights, labor migration and urban–rural income disparity: Evidence from the implementation of China's Rural Land Contracting Law in 2003," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 1457-1482, September.
    11. Meina Cai & Jianyong Fan & Chunhui Ye & Qi Zhang, 2021. "Government debt, land financing and distributive justice in China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(11), pages 2329-2347, August.
    12. Lin, Wanlin & Lin, George C.S., 2023. "Strategizing actors and agents in the functioning of informal property Rights: The tragicomedy of the extralegal housing market in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    13. Turkhan Sadigov, 2021. "Death beyond the means: Funeral overspending and its government regulation around the world," Rationality and Society, , vol. 33(3), pages 363-398, August.
    14. Rui Wang & Qianmao Zhu & Matthew Noellert, 2024. "Weak central government, strong legal rights: the origins of divergent legal institutions in 18th-century Chinese and Japanese rice markets," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, December.
    15. Dyzenhaus, Alex, 2021. "Patronage or policy? The politics of property rights formalization in Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    16. Herrmann-Pillath, Carsten, 2023. "The universal commons: An economic theory of ecosystem ownership," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    17. Harris,Colin & Cai,Meina & Murtazashvili,Ilia & Murtazashvili,Jennifer Brick, 2020. "The Origins and Consequences of Property Rights," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108969055, January.

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