This module is offered to MA students only.

This module builds on the law &amp; economics strand of modern economic research. The purpose of the module is to...

The Economics of Property Rights (SEES0113)

This module is offered to MA students only.

This module builds on the law & economics strand of modern economic research. The purpose of the module is to analyze the link between property rights arrangements and economic development. It discusses how and why property rights develop as well as why they may weaken and disappear. The importance of clearly defined property rights has emerged in contemporary analysis as one of the most frequently cited prerequisites for growth and development. But determining what “clearly defined” exactly means and how clear is clear in various local contexts is tricky. Moreover, the optimal legal arrangement of the rights of ownership may change not only in connection with political developments but also in response to technology. Modern history has witnessed some spectacular changes in property rights, among them the demise (after several millennia!) of formal property rights in human beings or the increasing complexity in protecting intellectual property rights. Modern history has also seen some serious challenges not just to individual kinds of ownership but also to the whole concept of property rights in general.

This module covers a wide array of relevant topics: the legal preconditions of the development of modern finance, property rights in marriage and rules of inheritance, interaction of technology and property rights, the invention of modern corporation and the agency problem, re-establishment of formal property rights in post-Communist countries, property rights and the environment, land ownership and others. While this is an economics module, the topic by necessity will require some excursions into history and into law.

The module examines politics in the states of Southeast Europe since the demise of Communist regimes in the region. Particular attention will be given to the...