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

划定土地权很可能是人类社会最早开展的活动之一。然而，尽管观察到划分土地权的制度在确定用途和价值方面将是重要的，但在这一点上完全缺乏经济学和法学文献。有保障的财产权可以在有效管理环境和自然资源方面发挥重要作用。确定影响产权安全的外生因素在分析其发展及其对资源使用和价值的影响方面一直是一项挑战。该项目是第一个对财产计量进行系统经济分析的项目。该项目考察了一项对土地产权的精确度和安全性具有外生影响的重要制度创新：相对于不分青红皂白的土地索要和边界，系统地划定财产边界。前者产生一个统一的正方形地块网格(称为矩形测量或RS)，而后者产生任意的局部属性边界，称为Metes and Bound(MB)。全世界都在使用甲基溴。在美国，它们出现在最初的13个州，肯塔基州和田纳西州，以及西南部的西班牙和墨西哥的土地批地中。矩形勘测用中央控制的正方形地块网格来勾勒出边界。在美国，RS是根据1785年的《土地条例》建立的，该条例将联邦政府的边境土地划分为平方英里？部分。这些分配额被进一步划分为较小的统一拨款，供个人申领或购买。该项目制定了审查土地划界制度的经济框架，重点是遥感和MB的比较分析。它首先考虑分散的土地索偿制度将如何产生非系统化的土地占有模式，并取决于自然地形和索偿人口的特征。然后考虑集中化系统如何为土地使用、土地市场、投资和边界争端产生不同的所有权模式和激励。RS可能会带来更多的市场交易，更少的边界争端，更大的投资，更高的土地价值，以及更多的基础设施投资。这个项目考察了俄亥俄州中部的一个地区，在那里，测界系统(弗吉尼亚军区内)与矩形测量管辖的土地相邻。主要数据包括美国人口普查手稿；法院意见；关于基础设施、法律纠纷和生产力的州报告；地理信息系统测量的地形；土壤质量；以及关于边界形状的地块级别数据。该项目正在建设宗地级、乡镇和县级的边界不规则性措施；地形；土壤质量；土地价值；土地利用；法律纠纷；交通发展。这些数据将被用来检验关于RS相对于甲基溴的经济影响的假设。调查人员正在寻求另一年的资金来完成数据收集，比预期的更复杂；完成建模和测试；最后扩大研究范围，包括调查的政治经济学分析和基本子午线的位置，土地条例的经济史，以及检查加拿大和其他地方采用RS的情况。广泛的影响：该研究涉及更广泛的问题，如资源产权的定义和执行，以及对资源使用和经济福利的影响。该项目涉及法学、经济学研究生和本科生，其中一人已经因为经验而决定继续攻读博士学位。

The demarcation of rights to land is likely one of the earliest activities undertaken by human societies. Yet, despite the observation that a system of demarcating rights to land will be important in determining use and value, the literature in economics and in law is completely absent on that point. Secure property rights can play an important role in effective management of environmental and natural resources. Locating exogenous factors that influence the security of property rights has been a challenge in analyses of their development and impact on resource use and value. The project is the first systematic economic analysis of property measurement.This project examines an important institutional innovation that has exogenous effects on the precision and security of property rights to land: the systematic demarcation of property boundaries relative to indiscriminate land claiming and bounding. The former results in a uniform grid of square parcels (named the rectangular survey or RS), whereas the latter results in haphazard localized bounding of properties, referred to as metes and bounds (MB). MB is used throughout the world. In the U.S. they are found in the original 13 states, Kentucky, and Tennessee, as well as in the Spanish and Mexican land grants in the Southwest. The rectangular survey outlines boundaries in terms of a centrally-controlled grid of square plots. In the US, the RS was established by the Land Ordinance of 1785, which divided federal government frontier lands into square mile ?sections? that were further divided into smaller uniform allotments for individual claiming or purchase. This project develops an economic framework for examining land demarcation systems, focusing on a comparative analysis of RS and MB. It begins by considering how a decentralized system of land claiming would generate patterns of land holdings that would be unsystematic and depend on natural topography and the characteristics of the claimant population. It then considers how a centralized system generates different ownership patterns and incentives for land use, land markets, investment, and border disputes. RS is likely to lead to more market transactions, fewer border disputes, greater investment, higher land values, and more infrastructure investment than metes and bounds. This project examines a region in central Ohio in which the metes and bounds system (within the Virginia Military District) is adjacent to land governed by the rectangular survey. The primary data include U.S. census manuscripts; court opinions; state reports on infrastructure, legal disputes, and productivity; GIS measures of topography; soil quality; and parcel-level data on boundary shape. This project is constructing parcel-level, township and county measures of boundary irregularity; topography; soil quality; land value; land use; legal disputes; and transportation development. These data will be used to test hypotheses regarding the economic impact of RS relative to MB. The investigators are seeking another year of funding to complete the data collection, more complex than anticipated; to finalize modeling and testing; and finally to extend the study to include analysis of the political economy of the survey and the location of base meridians, the economic history of the Land Ordinance, and examination of the adoption of the RS in Canada and elsewhere.Broader Impacts: The research addresses broader issues of the definition and enforcement of property rights to resources and the impact on resource use and economic welfare. The project involves law, graduate and undergraduate economics students in the research, one of whom already has decided to pursue PhD training as a result of the experience.