IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ahe/dtaehe/0403.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The privatisation of communal lands in spain (1750-1925): an econometric revision of the Neo-Malthusian thesis

Author

Listed:
  • Antonio M. Linares

    (Universidad de Extremadura, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Departamento de Economía Aplicada y Organización de Empresas)

Abstract

The main aim of this paper is to check one of the few existing theories regarding the factors that can explain the historical dissolution of collective rustic property, namely the Neo-Malthusian thesis which underlies the so-called “tragedy of the commons”. This old interpretative proposal, originating in the field of Biology, but rapidly adopted by Economy, not only continues to be explicitly present in some manuals of natural resources management, but also persists in those works that, from Economic and Social History, attempt to understand the reasons of the decline of communal systems in the Western world. Leaving aside the revision that, in the last decades, New Institutional Economy has advanced in this respect through the “property rights theory”, which is difficult to contrast, my paper tries to test the applicability of the Neo-Malthusian schema with the help of elementary econometric methods. The testing ground chosen for this purpose is the process of disintegration of communal lands which took place in Spain since the middle of the 18th century and, especially, the process of privatisation promoted by the Law of General Disentitlement of 1 May 1855. In no way does this analysis attempt to create a refined econometric model with which to explain the changes in collective patrimony during the last centuries. The inclusion in the test of other factors, different from the ones emphasised in the “tragedy of the commons”, suggests and advances some possible approaches to assemble an alternative theoretical schema, but does not endeavour to offer a global mechanical explanation.

Suggested Citation

  • Antonio M. Linares, 2004. "The privatisation of communal lands in spain (1750-1925): an econometric revision of the Neo-Malthusian thesis," Documentos de Trabajo (DT-AEHE) 0403, Asociación Española de Historia Económica.
  • Handle: RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:0403
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://media.timtul.com/media/web_aehe/dt-aehe-04031_20240108095244.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    tragedy of the commons; Neo-Malthusian thesis; privatisation process; collective rustic patrimony; Spain; Extremadura; econometric methods;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D71 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations
    • N54 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries - - - Europe: 1913-
    • N94 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History - - - Europe: 1913-
    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

    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:ahe:dtaehe:0403. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Antònia Morey (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeheeea.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.