The Effect of Property Rights on Economic Growth in Developing Countries: Areas and Barriers (in Persian)

Property is a tangible or intangible asset owned by an individual or jointly by a group of people. Due to the nature of the property, the owner has the right to consume, sell, rent, mortgage, transfer, and swap or even to destroy his/her property. The owner also has the right to prohibit others from using it. Property rights related to assets are the rights formulated in relation to the property. Economists hold that protecting property rights is a factor that leads to growth in developed countries through an implicit process encapsulated in the complex formal property system. According to them, such an influence is exerted in six ways: potential economic orientation of assets, collection of scattered data in the economic system, making the people accountable, making the assets transferable, networking the people and supporting the transactions. Because of lack of controlling structures, and weak contract enforcement, developing countries have been deprived of the benefits attributed to the protection of property rights. In addition to assessing the definitions of property rights, this article tries to answer two main questions: “What institutional infrastructures are required to create an efficient system of property rights in developing countries?” and “What are the obstacles ahead of these countries?” The article tries to provide some solutions to the problems as well. Accordingly, the experiences of East European countries are surveyed in the mean time in a try to answer these questions.