Economic Growth and Decline with Endogenous Property Rights

Aaron Tornell

NBER Working Paper No. 4354
Issued in May 1993
NBER Program(s):   EFG

This paper introduces endogenous property rights into a neoclassical growth model. 1t identifies a mechanism that generates growth rates which are increasing at low levels of capital. and decreasing at high levels of capital. The driving force behind changes in property rights is the attempt of each rent-seeking group to secure exclusive access to a greater share of capital by excluding others. We characterize an equilibrium in which there is a shift from common to private property, followed by a switch back to common property.

(1295 K)

Published: Journal of Economic Growth, Vol. 2, no. 3 (September 1997): 219-250.

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