Go West Young Man: Self-Selection and Endogenous Property Rights.

If, as Hume argues, property is a self-referring custom of a group of people, then property rights depend on how that group forms and orders itself. In this article we investigate how people construct a convention for property in an experiment in which groups of self-selected individuals can migrate...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Southern Economic Journal Vol. 79; no. 4; pp. 886 - 905
Main Authors: Jaworski, Taylor, Wilson, Bart J.
Format: Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell Apr2013
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        atl: Go West Young Man: Self-Selection and Endogenous Property Rights.
      aug:
        au:
          Jaworski, Taylor
          Wilson, Bart J.
        affil:
          Department of Economics, University of Arizona, P.O. Box 210108. Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
          Economic Science Institute, Chapman University, One University Drive, Orange, CA 92866, USA
      su:
        Hume, David, 1711-1776
        Property rights
        Economic impact of emigration & immigration
        Economic development
        Transfer (Law)
      sug:
        subj:
          Property rights
          Economic impact of emigration & immigration
          Economic development
          Transfer (Law)
          Hume, David, 1711-1776
      ab: If, as Hume argues, property is a self-referring custom of a group of people, then property rights depend on how that group forms and orders itself. In this article we investigate how people construct a convention for property in an experiment in which groups of self-selected individuals can migrate between three geographically separate regions. To test a hypothesis of Demsetz's, we vary across two treatments the external benefits of migrating. We find that self-selection has a powerful effect on establishing conventions of property and begetting increases in wealth through exchange and specialization. We also find support for the Demsetz hypothesis.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
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      src: R
    language: English
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