IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/agreko/54237.html

Property rights and land use regulation: a comparative evaluation

Author

Listed:
  • Bonti-Ankomah, Samuel
  • Fox, Glenn

Abstract

This paper reviews the rationale for policies aimed at limiting the conversion of farmland to nonfarm uses from the perspective of the economic theory of property rights. Policy measures to restrict the conversion of agricultural land to non-farm uses are commonplace in many countries. Typically, these policies are introduced to address long-run food security issues and possible externalities associated with incompatibility in land uses. The paper argues that the presence of externalities in the land market does not warrant farmland protection policies. Farmland protection policies in themselves can be a source of policy failure. It concludes that well-defined property rights along with nuisance and trespass laws, are necessary and sufficient for efficient allocation of land and can be a better alternative to farmland protection policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Bonti-Ankomah, Samuel & Fox, Glenn, 2000. "Property rights and land use regulation: a comparative evaluation," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 39(3), pages 1-25, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:agreko:54237
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.54237
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/54237/files/03%20Bonti-Ankomah%20_%20Fox%20Sept%202000.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.54237?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Weitzman, Martin L., 1974. "Free access vs private ownership as alternative systems for managing common property," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 225-234, June.
    2. Glenn Fox, 1994. "The Structure of Ownership and Prosperity," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 42(4), pages 511-524, December.
    3. Miceli, Thomas J & Segerson, Kathleen, 1994. "Regulatory Takings: When Should Compensation Be Paid?," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(2), pages 749-776, June.
    4. R. H. Coase, 2013. "The Problem of Social Cost," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(4), pages 837-877.
    5. Bromley, Daniel W., 1991. "Testing for common versus private property: Comment," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 92-96, July.
    6. Daniel Bromley, 1992. "The commons, common property, and environmental policy," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 2(1), pages 1-17, January.
    7. J. H. Dales, 1968. "Land, Water, and Ownership," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 1(4), pages 791-804, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. McCann, Laura, 2013. "Transaction costs and environmental policy design," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 253-262.
    2. Chen, Chunhua & Jiang, Dequan & Lan, Meng & Li, Weiping & Ye, Ling, 2022. "Does environmental regulation affect labor investment Efficiency?Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 82-95.
    3. Charles Raux, 2008. "Tradable driving rights in urban areas: their potential for tackling congestion and traffic-related pollution," Post-Print halshs-00185012, HAL.
    4. Stephen Polasky & Holly Doremus & Bruce Rettig, 1997. "Endangered Species Conservation On Private Land," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 15(4), pages 66-76, October.
    5. Juan Camilo Cárdenas, 2005. "Local Commons and Cross-Effects of Population and Inequality on the Local Provision of environmental Services," Lecturas de Economía, Universidad de Antioquia, Departamento de Economía, issue 62, pages 75-121, Enero-Jun.
    6. Bård Harstad, 2012. "Buy Coal! A Case for Supply-Side Environmental Policy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 120(1), pages 77-115.
    7. Manuel Pacheco Coelho, 2011. "Hunting Rights and Conservation: The Portuguese Case," International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, vol. 1(4), pages 164-164.
    8. Martin Larsson, 2017. "EU Emissions Trading: Policy-Induced Innovation, or Business as Usual? Findings from Company Case Studies in the Republic of Croatia," Working Papers 1705, The Institute of Economics, Zagreb.
    9. Polasky, Stephen & Doremus, Holly, 1998. "When the Truth Hurts: Endangered Species Policy on Private Land with Imperfect Information," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 22-47, January.
    10. Manuel Francisco Pacheco Coelho, 2009. "Roman Legal Tradition and the Mismanagement of Hunting Resources," Working Papers Department of Economics 2009/29, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Department of Economics, Universidade de Lisboa.
    11. Pierre Franc & Lisa Sutto, 2012. "Cap-and-trade system on CO2 emissions in maritime transport: potential impacts on shipping lines activities [Les permis d’émission de CO2 dans le transport maritime : quels effets possibles sur les lignes régulières conteneurisées ?]," Post-Print halshs-01366275, HAL.
    12. Charles Raux, 2011. "Downstream Emissions Trading for Transport," Transportation Research, Economics and Policy, in: Werner Rothengatter & Yoshitsugu Hayashi & Wolfgang Schade (ed.), Transport Moving to Climate Intelligence, chapter 0, pages 209-226, Springer.
    13. Chua, Wai Fong & Fiedler, Tanya & Boedker, Christina, 2024. "Projecting, infrastructuring and calculating: From an In vitro to an In vivo carbon market," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    14. Manuel Coelho & Jose Antonio Filipe & Manuel Alberto M. Ferreira & Rui Junqueira Lopes, 2013. "Extinction Revisited: “Allee Effect” and Irreversibility in “Schooling” Fisheries," International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, vol. 3(1), pages 405-405.
    15. Timothy J. Brennan & James Boyd, 2006. "Political Economy And The Efficiency Of Compensation For Takings," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 24(1), pages 188-202, January.
    16. Patrick Bigger, 2018. "Hybridity, possibility: Degrees of marketization in tradeable permit systems," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(3), pages 512-530, May.
    17. Wang, Xiaoxi & Xu, Meng & Chen, Kevin, 2025. "Internalizing externalities through ecological compensation: Evidence from trans-boundary water pollution in China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    18. Thomas J. Miceli, 2011. "The Use of Economics for Understanding Law: An Economist's View of the Cathedral," Working papers 2011-25, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    19. Robert N. Stavins, 2011. "The Problem of the Commons: Still Unsettled after 100 Years," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(1), pages 81-108, February.
    20. Baker, Matthew J. & Conning, Jonathan, 2021. "The Transformations of Customary Property Regimes in Africa: An Analytical Framing," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315325, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:agreko:54237. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeasaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.