Price is one important means by which goods are allocated. Prices are not free, and markets are organized to mitigate the transaction costs that arise. Such costs might be so great that prices are abandoned for alternatives like voting or donations. This chapter analyzes such cases.

This chapter examines further examples of property rights, including money and wildlife.

Information costs are the source of positive transaction costs. This chapter discusses the relationship between the two types of costs, and notes that a particular type of information cost matters. Commodities are complex because they are made up of bundles of attributes which vary in nature and are alterable by humans. The inability to separate and know these two sources of variance is what lies at the heart of positive transaction costs.

There are many notions of property rights. The critical concept in this book is an Economic Property Right, which is defined as an individuals ability in expected terms to exercise a choice with respect to a commondity. Such rights depend on the individuals legal and moral rights to that commodity. Such rights are complicated because they might be spread out across different subsets of a commoditys attributes, and different people might hold different types of rights to the commodity. Furthermore, the strength of any given property right can vary and is under the choice of various people.

This chapter summarizes the property rights model.

This chapter argues that all distributions of economic property rights are explained as attempts to maximize joint wealth net of the transaction costs of that distribution.

Because economic property rights are not free, they may be too costly to own. Hence many things are placed within the public domain. As circumstances change, things in the public domain may become captured. This chapter explores the mechanics of using waiting and racing to capture rights in the public domain, and then applies this to price controls.

As this book goes to print, life is slowly returning to normalcy in India following multiple waves of a debilitating pandemic that took the lives of more than half a million. Debates on the true extent of deaths notwithstanding, the pandemic infected above 40 million in the country and impacted lives and livelihoods across the globe. There is considerable uncertainty in Europe with the Russian invasion of Ukraine; political instability in neighbouring Pakistan with the ousting of the incumbent prime minister in a no-trust vote; mass protests following the economic crisis in Sri Lanka; strict lockdown in China as it grapples with another wave of COVID-19 outbreak; and inflationary pressures remain a concern worldwide amidst supply disruptions as recovery from the pandemic-induced recession had commenced. By contrast there is exuberance in the Indian financial sector, ‘unicorns’ are disrupting the market with their technological innovation and the initial public offering market spanning diversified industries is buoyant with unprecedented proceeds and a robust pipeline for the near future. While most struggle to make sense of how the platform economy creates value or how the digital transformation has created nouveau dollar billionaires, a ‘crypto mania’ is sweeping through the country. Not surprisingly the Government of India has announced that it will issue a digital rupee as central bank digital currency and that incomes from crypto assets will be taxed. In stark contrast to the exuberance in the financial markets and the ongoing digital transformation, the farm sector has witnessed prolonged large scale agitation.

In an unanticipated move in November 2021, the Government of India repealed three controversial farm laws enacted in September 2020 that were at the centre of protracted protests by farmers: mostly from the north Indian states. As agitating farmers and farmer unions demanded repeal of the farm laws and that the minimum support price (MSP) be made the legal guarantee as the floor price for all market purchases, the deep-rooted agrarian distress in regions such as Vidarbha in Maharashtra faded into oblivion as if those in crisis were unable to protest vehemently or end their lives tragically enough to draw media and policy attention. Of course, the issue of agrarian crisis has to be seen in the larger context of the changing structure of the economy and society. The underlying structural transformation of the economy has undoubtedly resulted in millions moving out of agriculture, and rising non-farm employment.