Economic analysis of property rights

"This is a study of the way people organize the use of resources in order to maximize the value of their economic rights over these resources. A person's economic property rights over an asset are defined here as the person's ability to gain from the asset by direct consumption or by exchange. It is prohibitively costly to measure accurately all assets' attributes; therefore, rights to them are never fully delineated. Property is consequently in danger of appropriation by others - by theft and also by excessive choosing, adverse selection, free riding, and shirking. Individuals enhance their rights (incurring transaction costs) by the protection and better delineation of their assets. In this new edition, Professor Barzel devotes a separate chapter to the firm and emphasizes the central role of equity capital as guarantor of the activities of the firm. In addition, he elaborates on the distinction between economic and legal rights and discusses the emergence of the state."
"The property rights model; The public domain: Rationing by waiting and price controls; Contract choice: The tenancy contract; Divided ownership; The old firm and the new organization; The formation of rights; Slavery; Wealth-maximizing constraints on property rights; Property rights and non-market allocation; Additional property rights applications; The property rights model: Recapitulation."