TY  - JOUR
AU  - Richardson,Gary
AU  - Bogart,Dan
TI  - Institutional Adaptability and Economic Development: The Property Rights Revolution in Britain, 1700 to 1830
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 13757
PY  - 2008
Y2  - January 2008
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13757
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13757.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Gary Richardson
Department of Economics
University of California, Irvine
3155 Social Sciences Plaza
Irvine, CA 92697-5100
Tel: 949/824-3189
Fax: 949/824-2182
E-Mail: garyr@uci.edu

Daniel Bogart
Department of Economics
3151 Social Science Plaza
University of Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697-5100
Tel: 949-824-3191
E-Mail: dbogart@uci.edu
AB  - Adaptable property-rights institutions, we argue, foster economic development. The British example illustrates this point. Around 1700, Parliament established a forum where rights to land and resources could be reorganized. This venue enabled landholders and communities to take advantage of economic opportunities that could not be accommodated by the inflexible rights regime inherited from the past. In this essay, historical evidence, archival data, and statistical analysis demonstrate that Parliament increased the number of acts reorganizing property rights in response to increases in the public's demand for such acts. This evidence corroborates a cornerstone of our hypothesis.
ER  -