Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T05:57:10.177Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What Humpty Dumpty might have said about property rights – and the need to put them back together again: a response to critics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 July 2015

GEOFFREY M. HODGSON
GEOFFREY M. HODGSON*
Affiliation:
Hertfordshire Business School, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Hertfordshire AL10 9AB, UK
*
*Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This is a response to the useful comments by Allen, Barzel and Cole on Hodgson (2015a) on property rights. One section deals with some misrepresentations by Allen and Barzel. For instance, contrary to one interpretation, Hodgson (2015a) did not accuse the ‘economics of property rights’ of ignoring legal institutions or of making them generally irrelevant. This response further clarifies the standard meaning of rights, showing that it is at variance with usages in the ‘economics of property rights’. The issue of moral motivation, and its relevance for legal compliance, are also elaborated. Some arguments in Hodgson (2015a) have been described by critics as mere semantics, but in response it is argued – contrary to philosophical nominalism – that changes in the meanings of words can be analytically significant, and we should treat traditional meanings more seriously, especially when dealing with other disciplines such as law. (The cryptic reference to Humpty Dumpty comes in here). Before concluding, there is also a brief discussion of different ways of interpreting transaction costs.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 11 , Issue 4 , December 2015 , pp. 731 - 747
Copyright
Copyright © Millennium Economics Ltd 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alchian, A. A. (1965), ‘Some Economics of Property Rights’, Il Politico, 30: 816–829.Google Scholar
Alchian, A. A. (1977), ‘Some Implications of Recognition of Property Right Transaction Costs’, in Brunner, K. (ed.), Economics and Social Institutions: Insights from the Conferences on Analysis and Ideology, Boston, MA: Martinus Nijhoff, pp. 234–255.Google Scholar
Allen, D. W. (2015a), ‘The Coase Theorem: Coherent, Logical, and not Disproved’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 11 (2): 379–390.Google Scholar
Allen, D. W. (2015b), ‘On Hodgson on Property Rights’, Journal of Institutional Economics, published online. DOI: 10.1017/S1744137415000132.Google Scholar
Barzel, Y. (1997), Economic Analysis of Property Rights, 2nd edn.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Barzel, Y. (2002), A Theory of the State: Economic Rights, Legal Rights, and the Scope of the State, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Barzel, Y. (2015), ‘What are “Property Rights”, and Why do they Matter? A Comment on Hodgson's Article’, published online. DOI: 10.1017/S1744137415000181.Google Scholar
Carroll, L. (1970), The Annotated Alice: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, edited with an introduction and annotations by Gardner, Martin, Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Coase, R. H. (1959), ‘The Federal Communications Commission’, Journal of Law and Economics, 2 (1): 1–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coase, R. H. (1988), The Firm, the Market, and the Law, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Cole, D. (2015), ‘“Economic Property Rights” as “Nonsense upon Stilts”: A Comment on Hodgson’, Journal of Institutional Economics, published online. DOI: 10.1017/S174413741500020X.Google Scholar
Cole, D. H. and Grossman, P. Z. (2002), ‘The Meaning of Property Rights: Law versus Economics?’, Land Economics, 78 (3): 317–330.Google Scholar
Commons, J. R. (1924), Legal Foundations of Capitalism, New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Darwin, C. R. (1871), The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, 1st edn., vol. 2, London: Murray and New York: Hill.Google Scholar
De Waal, F. B. M. (2006), Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Demsetz, H. (1968), ‘The Cost of Transacting’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 82 (1): 33–53.Google Scholar
Hodgson, G. M. (2001), How Economics Forgot History: The Problem of Historical Specificity in Social Science, London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hodgson, G. M. (2013), From Pleasure Machines to Moral Communities: An Evolutionary Economics without Homo Economicus, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hodgson, G. M. (2014a), ‘The Evolution of Morality and the End of Economic Man’, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 24 (1): 83–106.Google Scholar
Hodgson, G. M. (2014b), ‘On Fuzzy Frontiers and Fragmented Foundations: Some Reflections on the Original and New Institutional Economics’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 10 (4): 591–611.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodgson, G. M. (2015a), ‘Much of the “Economics of Property Rights” Devalues Property and Legal Rights’, Journal of Institutional Economics, published online. doi:10. 1017/S1744137415000028.Google Scholar
Hodgson, G. M. (2015b), Conceptualizing Capitalism: Institutions, Evolution, Future, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Holmes, R. W. (1959), ‘The Philosopher's Alice in Wonderland’, Antioch Review, 19 (2): 133–149.Google Scholar
Honoré, A. M. (1961), ‘Ownership’, in Guest, A. G. (ed.), Oxford Essays in Jurisprudence, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 107–147. Reprinted in the Journal of Institutional Economics, 9(2), 2013, 227–255.Google Scholar
Ingham, G. (2004), The Nature of Money, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Joyce, R. (2006), The Evolution of Morality, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Mises, L. von (1981), Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis, Translated from the second (1932) German edition, Indianapolis: Liberty Classics.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, M. C. (1997), ‘Flawed Foundations: The Philosophical Critique of (A Particular Type of) Economics’, University of Chicago Law Review, 64 (4): 1197–1214.Google Scholar
Ostrom, E. (1990), Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Posner, R. A. (1980), ‘A Theory of Primitive Society, With Special Reference to Law’, Journal of Law and Economics, 23 (1): 1–53.Google Scholar
Robinson, R. (1950), Definition, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Rosati, C. S. (2014), ‘Moral Motivation’, in Zalta, E. N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-motivation/. Retrieved 11 May 2015.Google Scholar
Smith, A. (1790), The Theory of Moral Sentiments; or, An Essay Towards an Analysis of the Principles by which Men Naturally Judge Concerning the Conduct and Character, First of their Neighbours, and Afterwards of Themselves, 2nd edn.London and Edinburgh: Millar, and Kincaid and Bell.Google Scholar
Tyler, T. R. (2006), Why People Obey the Law, 2nd edn.New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Wenar, L. (2011), ‘Rights’, in Zalta, E. N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2011/entries/rights/. Retrieved 1 May 2015.Google Scholar
Williamson, O. E. (1985), ‘Assessing Contract’, Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 1 (1): 177–208.Google Scholar