The thesis of this article is that the now extensive contemporary literature on the economics of property rights has generated more heat than light. Economists have invoked at least five distinct theories of ownership or property rights in their work. Unfortunately, authors frequently fail to acknowledge the existence of competing theories of property rights that stand as conceptual rivals to the theory that they, often implicitly, invoke.

Neo-liberal observers have frequently raised the red alert over insecure property rights in developing and emerging economies. Development would be at a crossroads: either institutional structure needs changing or it risks a full-fledged collapse. Yet, instead of focusing on the enigma between economic growth versus ‘perverse’ institutions, this contribution posits a functionalist argument that the persistence of institutions points to their credibility. In other words, once institutions persist they fulfill a function for actors.

The term “aboriginal forestry” is used increasingly to describe the evolving role of First Nations peoples in Canadian forestry over the last 30 years.

Landscape provides amenities and supports recreational, residential and productive activities. It appears both as an economic resource and as a local public good. Landscape economics uses both public economics and spatial economics concepts, but draws some specificity due to the social and cultural dimensions of landscapes. Moreover, it emphasises the role of the enforcement of property rights' devices on landscape dynamics. The latter is crucial for policy makers who have to deal with various topics such as urban sprawl, agriculture policy, territorial governance and local development.

This article examines a series of controversies concerning migratory deer ranges in Deschutes County, Oregon, USA, to reveal a set of tensions in the process of governing landscapes on the urban fringe. The complex and contentious processes involved in decisions concerning the zoning of these deer ranges revealed conflicts between deer migration routes, private property rights, the public good and cultural values attached to open space.

This article proposes an approach to the agrarian question that focuses on the establishment of absolute private property rights over land in Brazil and Mexico. The author argues that current land struggles are conditioned by the property regimes inherited from past struggles. The author examines the liberal reforms of the nineteenth century and argues that the balance of class forces led to the slow establishment of absolute private property in Brazil, while in Mexico they triggered the Revolution of 1910–1917, which limited agrarian capitalism.

This paper aims to study the responsiveness of the informal property market and management systems towards the introduction of land registration for informal settlements in Tanzania. City governments are increasingly recognising the need to strengthen legal rights for the urban poor as a means to bring them more effectively into the urban economy and ensure better provision of water, sanitation and other primary services. The research focuses on Tanzania and in particular two case studies within Dar es Salaam.

This article examines the institutionalisation of property rights by way of two case studies on biodiversity conservation in Albania and Romania. The analysis pays particular attention to local level negotiations which occur when local actors make use of concrete resources and engage in discussions about their appropriate use. In both Albania and Romania, national parks are the object of intense negotiations, as local people contest the associated restrictions on their property rights to agricultural land and forest.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute further insights into individuals' agri-environmental attitudes. In particular, the empirical analysis focuses on how citizens think agri-environmental property rights should be assigned. This has been done by surveying how individuals consider the environmental policy should promote the implementation of a group of agri-environmental measures, allowing us to examine the determinants of individuals' opinions about this matter.

Despite the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which brought to an end 20 years of civil warin the Sudan, this country continues to experience smaller-scale conflicts, particularly aroundaccess to and control of natural resources. Some observers lay the blame for this onethnopolitical or tribal divisions.