Lowering Transaction Costs through Institutional Arrangements: The Causes and Consequences of the Rectangular Survey in Assigning Property Rights to Land

越来越多关于跨国经济增长的文献普遍发现，房地产制度为投资、生产和贸易创造了激励，并通过塑造交易成本的规模和性质来决定市场的表现和范围。土地产权的界定和执行在很大程度上取决于土地测量（边界）、测量和交易的制度。在美国有两种主要的系统：一种是主要在东部和南部各州发现的米和界系统；矩形测量系统在其他州也很常见。米和边界系统根据特殊的、当地的自然特征和土地轮廓——岩石、树木、突出的点、溪流——来划分属性。相比之下，矩形测量使用标准化的、统一的划分，基于预先定义的网格内的位置，与地点和时间无关。矩形测量可以降低土地产权界定、执行和交换的交易成本。本提案的研究问题是确定矩形调查是否提高了土地市场的效率（影响土地价值、土地投资和使用、土地纠纷），从而促进了整体经济增长。本课题分为两部分：1)分析矩形测量的经济效果；2)分析矩形测量的经济结构。第一部分将评估矩形测量对土地价值、土地投资和土地使用以及土地纠纷的影响，而不是由米和边界或其他非矩形系统管理的土地。它将检查县和包裹水平的数据在几个特定地区，其中矩形和非矩形系统被使用。第二部分将确定导致(a)在特定时间在特定区域的特定状态采用矩形测量的因素；(b)支持矩形测量的子午线和基线的位置。该项目将首次对美国土地制度的最基本特征——测量方法——进行系统的经济分析，土地制度在历史上一直是经济发展和当前社会差异增长的关键。现有关于产权制度的文献具有启发性，但总体结果无法详细说明经济增长过程中制度、激励和交易成本之间的确切联系。该项目将具有确定这些链接所需的详细信息。更广泛的影响该项目将分析矩形调查对交易成本和美国土地市场发展的影响。它将使用对土地价值、土地投资和使用以及来自美国其他地区的土地纠纷的影响的估计来推断对全国土地市场的总体影响。在发展中经济体，土地是主要资产，因此降低这些交易成本可以大大促进经济增长。一旦项目完成了对调查的决定因素及其对土地价值、土地投资和土地使用的影响的分析，它将评估对提供道路和其他地方公共产品（如学校）的总体影响。

The growing literature on cross-country economic growth generally finds that property institutions create incentives for investment, production, and trade, and determine the performance and scope of markets by shaping the size and nature of transaction costs. The delineation and enforcement of property rights to land depends importantly on the system under which land is surveyed (bounded), measured, and transacted. In the United States there are two primary systems: the metes and bounds system found primarily in the eastern and southern states; and the rectangular survey system found generally in the rest of the states. The metes and bounds system demarcates properties in terms of idiosyncratic, local natural features and land contours-rocks, trees, prominent points, streams. The rectangular survey, in contrast, uses a standardized, uniform demarcation based on position within a pre-defined grid that is independent of the locality and time. The rectangular survey should reduce the transaction costs of land property rights definition, enforcement, and exchange. The research question in this proposal is to determine whether the rectangular survey increased the efficiency of the land market (affecting land values, land investment and use, land disputes) and thus contributed to overall economic growth. The project has two parts: 1) Analyze the economic effects of the rectangular survey; and 2) Analyze the economic structure of the rectangular survey. The first part will estimate the effect of the rectangular survey on land values, land investment and land use, and land disputes compared to land governed by metes and bounds or other non-rectangular systems. It will examine county and parcel level data in several specific regions where both rectangular and non-rectangular systems were used. The second part will determine the factors that led to (a) the adoption of the rectangular survey in a particular state of region at a particular time; and (b) the location of the meridians and baselines that support the rectangular survey.A. Intellectual Merit The project will be the first systematic economic analysis of the most fundamental feature - the method of measurement -- of the land system in the United States, which has been key historically in economic development and currently in differential growth across societies. The existing literature on property institutions is suggestive, but the aggregate results cannot detail the exact linkages among institutions, incentives, and transaction costs in the process of economic growth. This project will have the detail necessary to determine these linkages.B. Broader ImpactsThe project will analyze the effect of the rectangular survey on transaction costs and development of the United States' land market. It will use estimates of the effects on land value, land investment and use, and land disputes from other regions of the United States to infer the aggregate effect on the national land market. In developing economies land is the major asset, so lowering these transaction costs could provide a major boost to economic growth. Once the project completes its analysis of the determinants of the survey and its impact on land values, land investment, and land use, it will assess the aggregate impact on provision of roads and other local public goods, such as schools.