Introduction to Property Theory : The Fundamental Theorems

Ellerman, David

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: PROPERTY LAW;    PROPERTY RIGHTS;    THEORETICAL MATHEMATICS;    MARKET BASED MECHANISMS;    TRANSITION ECONOMIES;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2692
RP-ID  :  WPS2692

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The market system consists of a pricemechanism, built on the foundation of a system of property,and contract. In many developing, and transition economies,the market system functions poorly. In many cases, if notmost, the malfunctioning is not simply in the price system(for example, anti-competitive activities), but in theunderlying property system (such as contracts beingbreached, and externalities in the sense of transfers notcovered by contracts). Economic theory tends to take thefunctioning of the system of property, and contract forgranted, and focuses on the operation of the pricemechanism. Property theory focuses on the underlying systemof property, and contract. In this paper, the authorinaugurates the mathematical treatment of property theory.In contrast with earlier work in "law andeconomics", and the "new institutionaleconomics", this approach uses principles drawn fromjurisprudence, and does not attempt to reduce"law" to "economics" in the sense ofefficiency considerations, such as the minimization oftransaction costs. The main results are the two fundamentaltheorems of property theory that are analogous to the twofundamental theorems of price theory that, in essence, statethat: 1) A competitive equilibrium is Pareto optimal. 2)Given a Pareto optimal state, there exists a set of pricessuch, that a competitive equilibrium at those prices wouldrealize that Pareto optimal state.