In order for a society to use its resources efficiently, property rights must be well defined, enforced, and transferable. By now, this basic conclusion of the modern property rights literature needs little defense. Examples abound of the resource waste that occurs when actors do not bear the...

We show that grandfathering fishing rights to local users or recognizing first possessions is more dynamically efficient than auctions of such rights. It is often argued that auctions allocate rights to the highest-valued users and thereby maximize resource rents. We counter that rents are not...