* The authors are grateful to Nick Georgakopoulos and Richard Ross for their helpful comments and suggestions on a draft of this article. 1 This quote is from Tregarthen and Rittenberg (2000, p.133), but similar statements on the central role of property rights are found in most introductory texts. 1 ?2000 Daniel H. Cole and Peter Z. Grossman Draft April 19, 2000 The Meaning of Property “Rights:” Law vs. Economics? Daniel H. Cole M. Dale Palmer Professor of Law Indiana University School of Law at Indianapolis and Peter Z. Grossman* Efroymson Associate Professor of Economics Butler University I. Introduction There are few, if any, concepts in economics more fundamental than “property rights.” Most elementary economics texts make the point, often early in the book, that a system of property rights “forms the basis for all market exchange”1 and that the allocation of property rights in society affects the efficiency of resource use. More generally, assumptions of well-defined property rights underlie all theoretical and empirical research about functioning markets. The literature further assumes that when rights are not clearly defined market failures result. The meaning of property rights is, thus, fundamental to the language of economics. Given the importance of property “rights” in economics, it might be expected that there would 2 be some consensus in economic theory about what property “rights” are. But no such consensus appears to exist. In fact, property “rights” are defined variously and inconsistently in the economics literature. Moreover, the definitions offered by economists sometimes are distinctly at odds with the conventional understandings of legal scholars and the legal profession. Beyond semantics, different conceptions of property “rights” can lead to differences in analysis and to confusions in cross- disciplinary scholarship. Loose talk about property “rights” in the economics literature may even contribute to a belief, held by some legal scholars, that economic analysis of the law is irrelevant because it is based on unrealistic premises or, at least, premises very different from those upon which legal analysis is based (see, e.g., Leff 1974; White 1987). In this paper, we attempt to demonstrate how economists sometimes define property “rights” in ways that diverge significantly from standard legal conceptions, and how those divergent definitions can bias economic analyses and create the potential for misunderstanding. Section II provides a brief introduction to the theory of property rights that has predominated in legal theory and practice throughout the twentieth century. Section III then demonstrates, with a few examples – one from an elementary economics textbook, a second from a classic work of economic theory, and a third from a prominent property-rights economist – how economists sometimes define property rights in ways that diverge significantly from the conventional legal paradigm. Section IV discusses how these divergent definitions of property “rights” can create confusion and, if used to guide policy, lead to suboptimal economic outcomes. Section V concludes. 3 II. The Hohfeldian Paradigm of Legal Rights and Duties First-year law students are taught that property rights are relations between people respecting things (see, e.g., Hohfeld 1913, 1917; Cohen, 1954, p. 373). Defining these property relations – between owners and non-owners, and between claimants to disputed title – has been a basic task of both property theorists and common-law judges throughout American history. According to the predominant view, if person X holds a “right” to something, at least one other must have a corresponding duty not to interfere with X’s possession and use. If X claims a “right,” but cannot point to a corresponding “duty” that is enforceable against at least one other person, then what X possesses may not be a “right” at all but some lesser entitlement such as a privilege, liberty, or mere use. This dominant approach to property rights and duties has a long history in American jurisprudence and judicial practice. In the late nineteenth century, Holmes and Hodgson both argued that “[t]o take rights and not the corresponding duties as the ultimate phenomena of law, is to stop short of a complete analysis” (Hodgson 1870, Vol. II, pp. 169-70, quoted in Holmes 1872, p. 46). In the second decade of the twentieth century, Hohfeld (1913, 1917) elaborated on their relational approach to rights and duties in what has become one of the most influential and enduring works of American analytical jurisprudence. Hohfeld (1913, p. 30) was concerned about precisely the kind of loose “rights” talk that still infests the economics literature today. “[T]he term ‘rights,’” he wrote, “tends to be used indiscriminately to cover what in a given case may be a privilege, a power, or an immunity, rather than a right in the strictest sense.” To resolve this problem, Hohfeld constructed an elaborate scheme of “jural relations” (set out in Table 1), in which “right” and duty” are jural correlatives, Table 1. Hohfeld’s 4 System of Jural Relations Elements Correlatives Opposites Right Duty No Right Privilege or Liberty No Right Duty Power Liability Disability Immunity Disability Liability so that in order to establish a “right” (as opposed to some other, lesser, interest) one must be able to identify some corresponding duty that someone else possesses. In Hohfeld’s system, to claim that an industrial facility has a right to emit noxious substances into the air would necessarily be to claim that others have an enforceable duty not to interfere with their polluting activity. A legally enforceable “right” presumes a corresponding legally enforceable duty. By contrast, to claim a “freedom,” “liberty,” or “privilege” with respect to some activity is not necessarily to argue that anyone or everyone else has some “duty” to refrain from interference; indeed, everyone else may possess the same “freedom,” “liberty,” or “privilege.” Similarly, in the Hohfeldian scheme, a claim that you have no “duty” not to refrain from doing something is not the same as a claim of a right to do something; rather, it is merely to claim that no one else has the “right” to prevent you from doing it. This Hohfeldian conception of jural relations is, of course, contestable; and it has not gone unchallenged. Penner (1997a, p. 25), for example, argues that to understand property rights “we must not only discard Hohfeld’s dogma that rights are always relations between two persons, but also the 2 To gain some idea of the currency that Hohfeld’s theory of jural relations still enjoys, a cursory Westlaw search revealed citations to his 1913 and 1917 articles in 482 law review articles published during the 1990s. 5 idea that a right in rem is a simple relation between one person and a set of indefinitely many others.” Penner does not, however, dispute the importance Hohfeld attached to property duties. On the contrary, he expressly notes (139) that “the law of property in a sense depends on the law of wrongs. It does so in two important ways. It defines the contours of the right to property, and it determines, in part, who has property rights.” By recognizing that the determination of property rights depends on the enforcement of duties of noninterference, Penner is in substantial agreement with one of the most important aspects of the Hohfeldian “dogma” (see also Penner 1997b, p. 167). Despite the criticism of Penner and others, Hohfeld’s theory of jural relations remains dominant in legal theory (see, e.g., Munzer 1990, pp. 17-27; Perry 1977; Perry 1980; Singer 1982; Schmidtz 1994)2 and throughout the social sciences. Anthropologists have usefully applied Hohfeld’s analytical system to primitive legal and social systems (Hoebel 1942; Hunt 1998). Hallowell (1955, pp. 236-49) notes the value of Hohfeld’s system for empirical social science research. As Munzer (1990, p. 19) concludes, Hohfeld’s analytical system for distinguishing rights from other interests “has no serious rival of its kind in intellectual clarity, rigor, and power.” Moving from the realm of theory to practice, state and federal case law are replete with references to Hohfeld’s jural relations. For example, Justice Potter Stewart, in a 1978 Supreme Court concurrence, cited Hohfeld in suggesting that the “right” to marry is really a mere “privilege” under federal law. Zablocki, Milwaukee County Clerk v. Redhail, 434 U.S. 374, 391 (1978) (Stewart J., concurring). In Yu v. Paperchase Partnership, 114 N.M. 635, 640-1 (1992), the New Mexico 6 Supreme Court engaged in a detailed discussion of Hohfeld’s scheme of jural relations before concluding that a vendor ordinarily had the “power” to terminate a contract upon a default by a subvendee, but had a “legal disability” to terminate the contract in the absence of notice and the opportunity to cure. The Oklahoma Supreme Court, in Fowler v. Bailey, 844 P.2d 141, 150 n. 6 (OK 1992) (Simms, J. concurring), similarly discussed Hohfeld’s jural relations at length in a case concerning financial mismanagement. In Sims v. Century Kiest Apartments, 567 S.W.2d 526, 531-32 & n. 2 (Tex.Civ.App.1978), a Texas court distinguished between a landlord’s “right” and “power” to terminate a tenancy in a case of alleged retaliatory eviction. The Washington Supreme Court, in Seattle Sch. Dist. No. 1 v. State, 585 P.2d 71, 91 & n. 10 (Wash. 1978) (en banc) held that the State’s constitutionally imposed "duty" to provide for children's education entailed a correlative "right" of the children to an education. In Gutierrez v. Vergari, 499 F.Supp. 1040, 1048 n. 6 (S.D.N.Y.1980), a federal district court in New York distinguished rights/duties from powers/liabilities under the Civil Rights law, 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Most significantly, the Hohfeldian scheme of jural relations has been expressly adopted by the American Law Institute’s highly influential Restatement of the Law of Property (1936) (see Munzer 1990, p. 20). Section 1 of the Restatement defines “right” as “a legally enforceable claim of one person against another.” Aside from court decisions explicitly adopting Hohfeld’s scheme, courts in many cases have cast doubt on the contra-Hohfeldian notion, prevalent in some of the economic literature on property rights, that “rights” can be established merely by initiating use without opposition or penalty. Consider, for example, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Hadacheck v. Sebastian, 239 U.S. 394 (1915), in which the plaintiff alleged that new land-use regulations constituted a taking of his property without just 7 compensation. The record showed that Hadachek’s brick-making operation had been in business for years, producing not only bricks but “fumes, gases, smoke, soot, steam and dust ... [which] from time to time caused sickness and serious discomfort to those living in the vicinity.” However, until the City of Los Angeles passed an ordinance which prohibited brickmaking within the city limits, Hadachek was never penalized in any way. There was no question that he was engaged in brickmaking at the site (in the Pico Heights section of town) before anyone else resided in the area. A conflict only arose when others started moving into the area. Did his first use of the atmosphere as a depository for the noxious byproducts of his brickmaking operation give him a “right” to pollute? Not according to the Court, which upheld the City’s ordinance prohibiting Hadachek’s operation within city limits as a valid nuisance regulation. Not only did Hadachek’s first use not create a “right;” it violated a “duty,” which the public had a “right” to enforce. Similarly, in 1897 the Colorado Court of Appeals held that a prior appropriator does not acquire, as an incident of title, the right to pollute water to the detriment of downstream users, even if the prior appropriator was discharging pollutants into the water before the downstream users established their claims. The Suffolk Gold Mining & Milling Co. v. The San Miguel Consolidated Mining & Milling Co., 9 Colo. App. 407 (Colo. App. 1897). The first appropriator’s prior use could not impose a duty on future downstream appropriators to suffer damages from the first appropriator’s noxious discharges. More to the point, the subsequent downstream appropriators had a “right” to be free from the prior upstream appropriator’s pollution, and could enforce his “duty” not to discharge pollutants to their detriment. More recently, in Miller v. Cudahy, Co., 592 F. Supp. 976, 1001 (D.C. Kan., 1984), the 3 This is not to say, however, that what the courts decide is a “right” should be a “right.” 8 defendant claimed a “right to pollute” groundwater partly by virtue of the fact that it had been doing so for a long time without penalty. The court ruled, however, that “[r]egardless of when the polluting acts occurred, and regardless of society's changing views on the propriety of polluting the environment over the years, the defendants have never had a right to pollute the groundwater and they have never had a right to intentionally injure the surrounding landowners with impunity.” In other words, the plaintiffs did not have a duty to suffer the groundwater pollution and resulting harm without compensation. Courts have similarly ruled that there is no right to pollute the air, no matter for how long the polluter acted with impunity before being regulated. As the Michigan Court of Appeals explained in Detroit Edison Company v. Michigan Air Pollution Control Commission, 167 Mich. App. 651, 661 (Mich. App. 1988) (citations omitted): “To constitute a protectable right, a person must have more than an abstract need, desire or unilateral expectation of the right. Rather, there must be a legitimate claim of entitlement to it. It has been recognized that there exists no right to pollute. Since no such right exists, a polluter has not been deprived of any protected property or liberty interest when the state halts the pollution.” These various court decisions can, of course, be criticized. Scholars may disagree with the outcomes and/or the courts’ reasoning. But the cases cannot be ignored because, after all, what the courts decide is the law. A “right” is what these courts say it is.3 This simple fact is reflected in the modern law of nuisance, which makes the “right” to pollute or be free from pollution turn on the precise circumstances of specific resource-use conflicts, particularly the “reasonableness” of the polluter’s conduct and the parties’ respective costs of abatement or 4 For an introduction to the modern law of nuisance, see Dukeminer and Krier (1998, pp. 741- 78). 9 avoidance.4 The locus of legal “rights” to engage in, or be free of, harmful activities cannot possibly be determined, under modern nuisance law, before a court rules. At best, prior to a court ruling, one can assert or claim a right. But, as Schmidtz (1994, p. 43) has noted, “[c]learly, people do not acquire rights merely by asserting them.” In this respect, modern nuisance law supports Holmes’s argument that a claim of “right” (or “duty”) ultimately amounts to nothing more than a prediction that a court will enforce the interest of the claimant in the face of some challenge (see Holmes 1920 [1897], p. 169). To presume that a factory has a right to pollute merely by virtue of the fact that it has not previously been penalized for doing so, is to presume without warrant how a court would rule in a real contest between competiting claims of right. From an economic perspective, Holmes’s argument and modern nuisance law are consistent with the (real) Coasian worldview in which initial judicial or legislative allocations of entitlements play a critical role in determining ultimate control over resources because transaction costs may impede efficiency-enhancing reallocations (Coase 1960). Just because a factory pollutes without penalty does not mean that its externalities are efficient, that it produces net social benefits, or that the existing allocation of resources is optimal. To presume the entitlement from the mere fact of (first, second, or nth) use could impede efficiency in the real world of positive transaction costs and endowment (or wealth) effects, which might prevent parties from bargaining to some more efficient allocation. 10 5 Allen (1998, p. 106) provides a similar definition: “An economic property right is one’s ability, without penalty, to exercise a choice over a good, service, or person” (emphasis in original). 11 III. Divergent Definitions of Property “Rights” in the Economics Literature Hohfeld and Holmes are rarely cited in the economic literature on property rights, but some economists seem to understand implicitly that important distinctions exist between property “rights,” other kinds of entitlements, and mere uses. Hirsch (1999, p. 264) makes specific reference to the Hohfeldian definition of “right” contained in the Restatement of Property. And Alchian (1977 [1965], p. 130) writes about property rights in distinctly Hohfeldian terms: “A property right for me means some protection against other people’s choosing against my will one of the uses of resources, said to be ‘mine.’” Some economists, however, adopt idiosyncratic definitions of property “rights” that differ significantly from the dominant trends of legal theory and judicial practice, with unfortunate consequences. Consider the following description from a popular, preliminary economics textbook: “Firms do in fact have rights to discharge obnoxious substances into the air, as proved by the fact that they do it openly and are not fined. They have both actual and legal ‘rights to pollute’” (Heyne 2000, p. 334).5 This conception of “rights” may or may not be defensible as a normative matter, though the author does not present it as a normative assertion of what property rights should be. Rather, the author presents it as a description of “both actual and legal” property rights. As such, it is inadequate and misleading on a number of grounds. In the first place, the author presumes a distinction between “actual” and “legal” rights that is 6 Heyne (2000, p. 293) argues that “legal” and “actual” rights differ because people behave according to their expectations; if their “legal rights” are underenforced (or unenforced) they will act as if their rights are less than their legal entitlement. Thus, he claims, “rights” are “social facts.” But this merely reduces the concept of “right” to an expectation of what one can actually do without penalty. There are, however, many things one can do without penalty that are not “rights.” Moreover, whatever the extent of one’s “rights,” they are legal “rights.” Heyne argues that one can assert a “moral right,” which he takes to be something different from a “legal right” (293). This is not unusual in itself. But what Heyne describes as a moral “right” seems nothing more than a moral “claim” of right – a normative assertion of an entitlement the law ought to protect. 7 This is consistent, for example, with Alchian and Demsetz’s (1973, p. 17) definition of property: “What are owned are socially recognized rights of action.” 8 Whether or not there should be a “right to pollute,” under some circumstances, is another question. From a Coasian point of view, the answer is that such a right should exist whenever the polluter is the worst cost avoider (Coase 1960). 12 inherently problematic. One wonders what constitutes an actual but not legal “right.”6 Someone can control resources without possessing a “right,” but to assert a “right” to control resources is to claim that the law will or should enforce one’s control.7 And this must be the case whether one subscribes to a positivist view of law or some natural law theory. Either way, to assert a “right” is to assert a legal claim enforceable against others, who have a corresponding “duty” not to interfere with the right- holder’s possession and use. In the second place, the author argues that the existence of the “right,” in the case of the firm emitting noxious substances into the air, is proved by the fact that they are not penalized for doing so. This confuses the doing of something – mere use – with the “right” to do it. In the preceding section, we reviewed several actual court decisions demonstrating that mere use, by itself, does not give rise to property “rights.” Indeed, some courts maintain that it is not possible, under any circumstances, to acquire a “right to pollute.” Detroit Edison Company v. Michigan Air Pollution Control Commission, 167 Mich. App. 651, 661 (Mich. App. 1988).8 13 Even supposing that it is not the imposition or nonimposition of a penalty but the legality or illegality of the conduct that is important, the mere fact that some action is not illegal does not mean those who engage in the action have a “right” to do so. They may, instead, be at “liberty” to do it or have the “privilege” or “freedom” to do it. Put differently, they may be said to have no “duty” not to do it. But, as we have seen, in legal theory and practice these concepts all differ from the concept of “right.” To take another example, this time from a classic work of economic theory, Buchanan and Tullock present the following scenario in The Calculus of Consent (1962, p. 91): Smoke from an industrial plant fouls the air and imposes external costs on residents in the surrounding areas. If this represents a genuine externality, either voluntary arrangements will emerge to eliminate it or collective action with unanimous support can be implemented. If the externality is real, some collectively imposed scheme through which the damaged property owners are taxed and the firm’s owners are subsidized for capital losses incurred in putting in a smoke-abatement machine can command the assent of all parties. If no such compensation scheme is possible (organization costs neglected), the externality is only apparent and not real. The same conclusion applies to the possibility of voluntary arrangements being worked out. Suppose that the owners of the residential property claim some smoke damage, however slight. If this claim is real, the opportunity will always be open for them to combine forces and buy out the firm in order to introduce smoke-abatement devices. If the costs of organizing such action are left out of account, such an arrangement would surely be made. All externalities of this sort would be eliminated through either voluntary organized action or unanimously supported collective action, with full compensation paid to parties damaged by the changes introduced by the removal of the externalities.” 14 Notice that the authors tacitly presume that the polluter holds the right, and that the only option available to those harmed by the pollution is to buy-out the polluter through voluntary collective action or some consensus tax and subsidy scheme. But what is the basis for presuming that the industrial plant possess the right to pollute in the first place? Why not presume instead that the neighbors possess the right to be free from the factory’s pollution? As we have seen, there is no basis for such a presumption, one way or the other, in contemporary jurisprudence or in Coase’s analytic framework. Even prominent property-rights economists sometimes define property “rights” in ways that diverge significantly from conventional legal definitions. Umbeck (1997 [1981], p. 39) has written that “ownership can emerge from a variety of circumstances.” For example, a person may acquire rights in coconuts simply because he is the only one who can climb a tree. Similarly, an individual may have rights to fish because he alone knows where to catch them. Or, a pretty woman may have the rights to a seat on a crowded bus because she is pretty. Notice, however, that even in these cases the individuals can be deprived of their rights by other individuals. Non-tree climbers can cut the coconut tree down, the fisherman can be continually watched and followed until his private fishing spot is discovered, and the pretty woman can be thrown from her bus seat or made physically unattractive. In other words, ownership rights to property can exist only as long as other people agree to respect them or as long as the owner can forcefully exclude those who do not agree. Later (125), Umbeck asserts that “[w]e must assume initially that each individual has the right to some resources” (emphasis in original). Umbeck’s conception of “rights” plainly deviates from standard legal theory and judicial 9 Arguably, by using the term “right” to describe a situation in which the holder of the “right” has no authority to exclude others from destroying or altering the object of their “right,” Umbeck reduces the term “right” to insignificance. As the United States Supreme Court has noted, the right to exclude is “one of the most essential sticks in the bundle of rights that are commonly characterized as property.” Kaiser Aetna v. United States, 444 U.S. 164, 176 (1979). 10 Umbeck’s claim also runs counter to the standard economic explanation of the “tragedy of the commons,” which results from the absence, not the ubiquity, of rights in some resource (see Demsetz 1967). 15 practice. According to conventional legal understanding (outlined in section II), a person does not acquire a “right” to coconuts merely because they alone are physically capable of climbing the tree. Otherwise, how can Umbeck’s tree cutter dispossess them, without consent or compensation, simply by cutting down the tree? That the tree cutter can do so suggests that the coconut picker possesses no “right” to the coconuts,9 but some lesser entitlement, such as a liberty or privilege, or a mere use. Similarly, Umbeck’s fisherman has no “right” to the fish solely by virtue of the fact that he alone knows where to catch them. What he has, in fact, is an advantageous information asymmetry, but no legal “right” to the fish or “right” to exclude others from the fish. As for Umbeck’s pretty woman on the bus, it is absurd (not to mention sexist) to claim that she has a “right” to a seat solely by virtue of being pretty and a woman. Some may give up their seats for pretty women; others may not; certainly, no one is under no obligation (or “duty”) to do so. If a pretty woman should ask someone for his or her seat and that person refuses, she has no enforceable legal claim against them. Umbeck is confusing the mere doing of something with the legal “right” to do something or have something done. There is no necessary or conventional connection between the two. Finally, Umbeck’s assertion that “we must assume initially that each individual has the right to some resource” reduces the term “right” to insignificance.10 If everyone possesses a “right” but no one a corresponding duty with respect to a 11 Umbeck claims, to the contrary, that the initial assumption is necessary because, without it, individuals’ decisions could not affect resource allocations. But this is false. Individuals without “rights” may still be at “liberty” to use resources; they may have “no duty” to refrain from using resources; or they may simply use resources (as in a state of nature). He mistakenly conflates “right” with “ability” or “entitlement.” A “right” is, indeed, an entitlement, but not every entitlement is a “right.” 12 For example, if the possession of a “right” depends on the ability to forcibly (by physical prowess or law) exclude , then how can it be that the Umbeck’s fisherman possesses a “right” simply by virtue of his superior knowledge? Does that superior knowledge somehow constitute forcible exclusion of others? 16 resource, the term “right” ceases to have any meaning for resource allocation.11 The resource is, in effect, open-access, which is to say that it is not subject to property at all. Umbeck (141) correctly concludes, however, that property “rights are ultimately founded upon the ability to forcefully exclude potential competitors.” This seems inconsistent with his other assertions about “rights,”12 but wholly consistent with the dominant Hohfeldian paradigm of legal theory and judicial practice. IV. Bias and Confusion Stemming from Divergent Definitions of Property “Rights” in the Economics Literature To the extent economists’ definitions of property “rights” differ from predominant legal conceptions, they make cross-disciplinary dialogue difficult. Unwary readers may be misled into thinking that economists’ definitions reflect legal reality (or the understanding of legal scholars), when they do not. This same problem used plauged the legal literature at the beginning of the twentieth century, and Hohfeld set out to correct it, with influential and beneficial results. Although “property” remains in many ways an elusive concept (Harris 1996, p. 6), lawyers, legal scholars, and judges, seem to have little difficulty, within the margins, distinguishing “rights” from other kinds of interests such as licenses, privileges, or mere uses. To the extent that economists are concerned with using the idea of 17 property rights as legal scholars do, they should avoid conflating property “rights” with mere uses or claims of right. Perhaps more importantly, divergent definitions of property “rights” can skew economic analyses and, potentially, outcomes. This would not be the case, of course, in the (mythical) world of the “Coase Theorem,” in which the allocation of property “rights” cannot possibly affect allocative efficiency. As Coase (1960, pp. 2-6) illustrated with his famous example of the land-use conflict between a cattle rancher and a crop farmer, the ultimate social product remains the same regardless of who holds the initial entitlement, if transacting is costless. In that circumstance, property “rights,” however defined, do not matter. But in the real world of positive transaction costs and endowment effects, the allocation and meaning of property “rights” can (and do) affect social product. When transaction costs are positive, it can make a great difference – in terms of ultimate economic outcomes – who initially possesses the legal “right” and what that “right” means. As Coase demonstrated in “The Problem of Social Cost” (1960), high transaction costs can prevent trading around an initial allocation to some more efficient allocation. In this circumstance, it is important that society allocate the resource initially to maximize efficiency, that is, by minimizing social costs. This is the normative aspect of Coase’s theory: that the entitlement should be awarded to that party who has the higher costs of avoiding or abating the harm, so as “to avoid the more serious harm” (Coase 1960, p.2). Heyne’s “rights” When transaction costs are high, the definition of property “rights” may matter every bit as 18 much as the initial allocation. Consider the conflict between Coase’s farmer and rancher in a world where property “rights” exist as defined by Heyne (2000, p. 334). Farmer and Rancher each holds a supposed legal (or actual) “right” based simply on their respective uses, neither of which has been restricted to date. Both assert a “right” based on unimpeded use, but neither can identify a corresponding legal duty, enforceable against the other. In a real sense, since each has the “right,” neither does. Reference to the pre-existing “rights” provides no basis for resolving the conflict. In addition, there is no reason for any third person to believe that either Farmer or Rancher has a “right” to anything, or that they themselves have a “duty” of noninterference with respect to Farmer’s and Rancher’s uses. Because the “rights” have been defined without regard to legal enforceability, they and the very concept of “right” have become practically worthless (economically speaking). The dispute between Farmer and Rancher (and any third party) can presumably be resolved but only at some positive cost – as would be true of any dispute over undefined (or ill-defined) entitlements. The parties may reach a voluntary (but enforceable) contract that is surely costly; the dispute may be resolved by the imposition of rights and duties by a third party – also costly. It may conceivably be resolved only through very costly self-enforcement – “might makes right.” Ultimately, the only way for efficiency-enhancing exchange to take place, and to prevent efficiency-reducing exchanges, is for legally enforceable property rights (and duties) to be established. Once that is done, of course, Heyne’s non-legally enforceable “rights” become irrelevant to the economic analysis. Umbeck’s “rights” The same is true under one of Umbeck’s (1997 [1981]) (inconsistent) definitions of property 19 “rights.” In Umbeck’s scheme, property “rights” are determined by the physical characteristics of the holders, rather than by considerations of economic efficiency, first-in-time, just deserts, or other standard grounds for allocating property “rights.” Umbeck’s coconut picker, who holds the right by virtue of his ability to climb the tree, can have his “right” involuntarily curtailed without compensation by the unilateral action of the tree-cutter since the latter has no enforceable duty to forbear from cutting the tree. Not only does this seem contrary to virtually every known legal conception of “right,” but Umbeck’s conceptualization hardly seems likely to maximize allocative efficiency. Surely, such a weak “right” would discourage efficient investment in resources; individuals, uncertain in their “rights” would be “demoralized” from investing (Michelman 1967, p. 1214). From a Coasian point of view, Umbeck’s analysis is problematic because it allows for allocation of rights between competing users, such as the coconut picker and the tree-cutter, without any regard for their comparative abilities to avoid or abate the harm. That is to say, Umbeck allows the tree-cutter to take away the coconut picker’s “right,” unilaterally and without compensation, even if that reallocation would increase joint costs and, thus, reduce the social product. It should be noted in Umbeck’s defense that he was not using the term “right” in the same sense as Coase (1960) or other property-rights economists such as Demsetz (1967) (not to mention legal scholars and judges). But this is precisely the point. By adopting an idiosyncratic conception of property “rights,” Umbeck exposes himself to criticism on economic grounds, which he can deflect only by noting that the criticism rests on a confusion, for which he himself is responsible. Would it not be better to avoid the confusion (and the unnecessary criticism) in the first place, by relying on conventional (legal) definitions of “rights,” “duties” and other “jural relations?” 13 As Cheung (1986, p. 37) has pointed out, in a world of costless transacting “the assumption of private property rights can be dropped without in the least negating the Coase Theorem.” Coase (1988, p. 15) concurs. 20 Buchanan and Tullock’s “rights” In Buchanan and Tullock’s scenario of the industrial polluter and neighboring residential property owners, there is presumed to be an actual entitlement in the Hohfeldian sense, although there is an implicit assumption that mere use somehow established the “right,” and that alternative allocations are non-viable. Here, since a legally enforceable “right” and corresponding duties of noninterference exist, the economic analysis is simple – too simple. It is, first, presumptuous to imply legally enforceable “rights” from use. And, second, it may be inefficient, if the industrial polluter is the best cost avoider. It is extremely unlikely, to say the least, that in the real world any single party would be the best (or worst) cost avoider in any and all resource-use conflicts. Buchanan and Tullock provide a parenthetical caveat to their analysis: “(organization costs neglected).” This caveat places Buchanan and Tullock’s analysis into the mythical world of the “Coase Theorem,” in which the parties can be expected to arrive at the same optimal allocation of pollution “rights” and “duties,” regardless of the initial allocation of rights and duties. The only significant difference, then, between Buchanan and Tullock’s (1962, p. 91) case of the industrial polluter versus neighboring residential property owners and Coase’s story of the rancher versus neighboring farmer is that Buchanan and Tullock simply presume that one party – the industrial polluter – holds the initial entitlement. Such a presumption certainly is not needed for the Coase Theorem to operate;13 nor is it warranted by anything in Buchanan and Tullock’s analysis. Once we move to a world of positive transaction costs, however, Buchanan and Tullock’s 21 presumption that the industrial polluter possesses the entitlement could well lead to a suboptimal economic result. In circumstances of high transaction costs, the parties could be prevented from bargaining around the initial allocation to some more efficient allocation. This would render the initial allocation (relatively) inefficient in cases where the industrial polluter proved to be the best cost avoider. Finally, Buchanan and Tullock’s presumption that the industrial polluter possesses the “right” neglects endowment (or wealth) effects that can significantly influence resource valuations. Several studies have shown that such an endowment (or wealth) effect exists (Brookshire and Coursey 1987; Boyce et al. 1992; Kahneman, Knetsch and Thaler 1990). Holders of property rights in a resource tend to value that resource more highly than others (Sunstein 1997, pp. 248-49). This endowment effect can, independently of transaction costs, affect bargaining between the parties. As Barnes and Stout (1992, p. 48) explain, “[s]ince a party’s willingness and ability to pay are affected by wealth, the assignment of a right to one party may determine the outcome in terms of the actual use to which resources are put.” It is all the more important, therefore, that initial allocations be as efficient as possible. And, once again, there is no reason to simply presume, as Buchanan and Tullock do, that the right would be most efficiently held by the industrial polluter. V. Concluding Remarks Because property “rights” impact on so many questions in the economic literature, it is crucial that such rights be clearly defined and understood. Certainly, Holmes, Hohfeld, and other jurisprudes of the early twentieth century thought it was important for legal analysis to carefully differentiate between property rights, other entitlements, and mere uses. And Coase (1960) has shown (if only 22 implicitly) why doing so is just as important for economic theory. Even if it is not possible precisely to pin down what property “rights” are, conventional understandings as reflected in the theoretical literature and actual judicial decisions concerning property rights must inform any serious discussion. It is careless (to say the least) for economists writing about property rights simply to presume that such “rights” arise from mere use, without acknowledging that such a presumption (1) runs contrary to the sizeable jurisprudence on the definition and allocation of property rights and (2) may preordain suboptimal economic outcomes. 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