Institutional Analysis of Property Rights: Means of Individualization (Trademark) as an Institutional Alternative in Ensuring Quality and Specific Performance

The paper provides analysis of means of individualization (trademarks) as an institutional alternative to ensure quality of market goods and to enforce specific contractual performance of sellers and buyers. In general, the price mechanism as described in the perfect competition paradigm fails to ensure efficient market exchange of sophisticated goods and supplementary institutions such as a reputational mechanism are often required. Means of individualization as part of the reputational mechanism contribute to increasing efficiency of the market exchange by ensuring quality of market goods and, in broader context, by enforcing specific performance within the market contracts. The paper provides analysis of advantages and disadvantages of the means of individualization as compared with its institutional alternatives - “pure” market institutions, and centralized regulation of quality/contract performance