Evolving property rights and efficient land use

Excerpt

This essay could be titled, “The cultivated land, the cultivated mind, and the preservation of democracy,” as it contains elements of all three. How do they relate to evolving property rights and efficient land use? How does regulation fit into efficient land use?

Striving for efficiency

In our society, we prize efficiency. Farmers and manufacturers constantly strive for more efficient production. At the level of national economy, movement toward maximum economic efficiency is both a goal and measure of economic progress. So the crucial question about property rights is, do evolving property rights enable land use to be more efficient in an economic sense? Or is the opposite true? In what ways?

The answers to these questions are very important to land users and investors, and especially to society. The answers aren't easy to establish: instead we must look to good economic theory for guidance. As economist and Nobel laureate Robert M. Solow says, “Good theory is usually trying to tell you something even if it is not the literal truth.”

Efficiency in land use always refers to the ratio of output to inputs. For example, U.S. land use pattern is economically efficient …