Bonding is a market-based enforcement mechanism that relies on financial incentives and reputation effects to deliver compliance with regulations at the lowest possible cost. For example, bonding is used to ensure court appearances, completion of construction projects, and the payment of taxes....

Under the 1872 Mining Law, claimants can to acquire outright title to federal lands. Yet miners have not widely used this land-disposal feature, known as the mineral patent provision, since the early part of the century. In this paper I use a property rights framework to examine the relationship...