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Berle and Means long ago noted the increasing diffusion of ownership in large American corporations and concluded that control was shifting from the stockholders to the managers. Since then, the Berle-Means (B-M) thesis has been the subject of continuous and heated controversy both within and without the profession, and has provided a major rationale for the introduction and expansion of government regulation of security transactions. It is therefore astonishing that, almost forty years after the publication of The Modern Corporation and Private Property, the empirical evidence produced on either side of the issue has been negligible. Until recently, the B-M thesis rested entirely on faith and on data reflecting increased diffusion of share ownership, with no empirical evidence regarding the validity of the consequences alleged to follow from such diffusion. This failure to pursue more rigorous testing seems due, at least in part, to a misunderstanding of the meaning and role of private property in decision-making. The purpose of this paper is to encourage the proper evaluation of the B-M thesis. Section I contains a brief discussion of the usefulness of data describing the distribution of shares among owners. Section II presents some theoretical issues relating to the B-M thesis, Section III considers the relationship between diffusion of ownership and private property, and Section IV examines the empirical evidence relating to the behavioral implications of the B-M thesis. Section V contains a few concluding remarks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the control and ownership of press in Africa. It says that the problem of Africa when it comes to the press is on how to consolidate the interests in mass communications to build a viable system and how to resolve the danger of total constriction of freedom of expression. It states that the ownership of the African press can be classified into religious press, party press, commercial press, and government press. It adds that it is viewed that the foreign-owned press under the control of foreigners is not dedicated to serve the interest Africa.

This paper examines the impacts of laws and property right assignments on the organization of economic activity in the Netherlands. Nonexclusivity in consumption threatens the familiar free rider problem that discourages the production of public goods in optimal amounts. State, commercial, and pay broadcasting are organizational forms that derive from differences in the structure of property rights and the cost of transacting in markets. A closer look at Dutch broadcasting clubs provides support for the relevance of the by-product theory. By law, the production of a programming guide is the exclusive right of such clubs. This suggests that the monopoly element in exclusive production rights to programming guides protects broadcasters from nonclub suppliers only and does little to suggest why more than one club should share two-thirds of all listener-viewer households. Since membership size produces revenues beyond club dues, there is some incentive for clubs to subsidize subscription purchases. Employers and employees are prohibited by law from unilaterally terminating an employment contract without the express permission of the relevant district director of labor affairs. Because of this law, use of the market, via hirings and layoffs, as a means of varying its utilization of labor resources entails a special cost to the firm. Another, if somewhat novel, substitution away from unilateral employment termination is investment by firms in job search on behalf of their workers.

Discusses American Indians' attitudes toward the concept of private property rights. Respect for private property rights in small items such as utensils, weapons and jewelry; Absence of the concept of private property rights in land; U.S. government's belief that giving Indians land would 'civilize' them.

This article explains the misunderstandings of the civil law. A rule of law that has been gradually developed can only be understood by knowing the course of its development; and that is more or less known by good lawyers, if the rule took its rise in England. So far as the American jurisprudence reaches back to an earlier date, there are the same reasons for tracing it to its source. Again, not only would it be hard to name any one who has thrown new light on such general problems of jurisprudence as the arrangement of the law, who has not known something of the labors of the civilians; but the paper tries to show that an ignorant misunderstanding of the Roman classification has led to confusion.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of the eminent domain institution on the allocation of resources and the equity of treatment received by individuals sustaining equal damage through its operation. The acquisition of private property through eminent domain is an important aspect of governmental economic activity. The use of this institution alters the allocation of resources and raises questions concerning equity, as well. The volume of such non-market transactions unquestionably is growing. Highway construction, public housing, slum clearance, urban renewal and school and utility construction are all activities which typically involve eminent domain. The aggregate scale and growth of such activities is suggested by a comparison of total public construction outlays. New public construction activity for 1959 was approximately 16 billion, by 1968 it had reached a yearly level of nearly $28 billion. The scope of property acquisition by the state is reflected also in human displacement. From 1949 to 1963 one finds that 176,908 families, 65,657 individuals and 39,339 business firms were displaced through the implementation of 703 urban renewal projects in 405 cities.

AS CRITICISM of the traditional theory of production and exchange has mounted in the postwar period, increasing attention has been given to new analytical approaches that seek either to supplant classical marginalism or to extend its scope. In the latter category is the important body of literature that has grown up around the notion of property rights structures. The contributions here are quite diverse in style and content but are characterized by a common emphasis on certain basic ideas concerning the interconnectedness of ownership rights, incentives, and economic behavior. The purpose of the present paper is to summarize the essential feature of this line of research, examine some of its important areas of application, and discuss the promise the approach holds for improved understanding of economic problems. To say that the property rights literature has these distinguishing characteristics is, of course, not to suggest that other approaches share none of the qualities noted, or that other lines of investigation are without merit. Nevertheless, the property rights analysis does offer a fresh and useful way of looking at economic problems. Substantial advances, have already been achieved and the literature gives evidence of continuing. vitality and promise of future accomplishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many individuals derive satisfaction through hunting waterfowl. The utility of the birds as a consumption good implies that some scarce resources, primarily ponds and breeding birds, should be devoted to game production. The migratory nature of the wildfowl precludes a conventional system of property rights and prevents market determination of optimal resource quantities to be devoted to production. In general, the production of waterfowl requires the use of Canadian natural resources but more than two-thirds of the birds are consumed by United States hunters, thereby creating an externality of international scope. Precise hunting regulations are established by each state under the general supervision of the federal government. Since no evidence indicates trade in this commodity among the states, an additional jurisdictional externality is created. In the model to be developed, authors identify the transient and steady-state management conditions necessary to achieve a social optimum. This paper presents the first systematic attempt either to formulate a waterfowl population model. It also represents the first effort to join economic with physical relationships in order to determine the optimal number of ponds, of breeders, and of seasonal kill.

In this paper I wish to summarize the significance of property rights and appropriability, review the connection between appropriability and efficiency, and then reassess the probable impacts of several efficiency-promoting devices.
The general conclusion is simply that, in appraising special tools to increase efficiency, one should examine what happens to property rights and appropriability in order to form realistic expectations about the effects. Also, in trying to invent improved devices or institutional changes, or in launching new programs, we should keep the impacts on rights and opportunity sets in the forefront of our minds, and not just assume that good intentions pave the road to economic efficiency. Closely related conclusions have been stated or implied by numerous others,[14] but in my opinion one can appreciate the points more vividly and accurately by thinking in terms of appropriability and specific rights structures. As Adam Smith might have said, it is not from the benevolence of the balloter, bureaucrat, or branch chief that we should expect our public goods but from their regard to their own interest.[15]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a response by the author to Sanford Cohen and Bruno Stein, who criticized the author's article "Property in Work," published in the April 1962 issue. The author condemns the remarks that his discussion proposes some policy or oppose some policy. According to him, it simply says that some policies favor some classes of the community at the expense of other classes. The author also maintains that property rights in work does exist may be not in a legal but in some customary sense.

The article presents information about several books and papers on the protection of International Property Rights. Some of the books listed are "States, Contracts and Progress," by Harold M. Fleming and N.Y. Oceans, "Expropriation in Public International Law," by Ben A. Wortley, "Conflicting Interests in International Business Investment," by Richard D. Robinson, "International Arbitration: Law and Practice," by J.L. Simpson and Hazel Fox. Some of the papers listed are: "State Contracts and State Responsibility," published in the July 1960 issue of "The American Journal of International Law," the paper "American Foreign Trade and Investment Disputes," by George W. Haight published in the 1959 issue of "The Arbitration Journal," the paper "Indonesian Nationalization Measures Before Foreign Courts," by Martin Domke published in the April 1940 issue of "The American Journal of International Law" and the paper "Lawyers, Foreign Governments and Business Abroad," by John Fayerweather published in the "Virginia Law Review."

When discussions in economics turn to the problem of land, its allocation, and monopoly rent, the ideas of economist Henry George quickly appear on the agenda: George's association with land tenure systems is well established. It is as though his arguments could be applied to little else. Because of this single-minded association there are some who would relegate George and his theories to a position among those who offered interesting yet impractical schemes for the solution of social ills. Still others find new applications for his ideas and thus view his writings as a valuable contribution to the field of economics. In this article authors show how George's policy pronouncements regarding property rights relate themselves to problems of water quality and the current literature in that field. By so doing, they present an argument that leads inexorably to the conclusion that his contribution may be a foundation for the analysis of any environmental resource. According to authors, perhaps the most common criticism made of economists is the failure to state explicitly the assumptions. However, the failure to recognize the contributions of Henry George to environmental analysis has occurred because of a lack of clearly stated assumptions.

Focuses on the theory of appropriation of Locke. Accounts of the origin of private rights of property; Appropriation of necessary means of subsistence; Establishment of property rights in things common to all without the consent of others in the age of abundance.

This article focuses on the issue of windfall gains from transfer of water allocation in the U.S.-based Colorado-Big Thompson Project. When the issue has been raised of individuals gaining windfall profits or unearned increments by virtue of controlling resources created or enhanced by governmental investment or control it is necessary to examine the status of the users or beneficiaries of governmentally financed resource development to determine if there is a basis for government claiming profits gained from transfer. As pointed out by Professor C.A. Reich of Yale University, Connecticut, the U.S. government has emerged as a major source of wealth by drawing in revenue and power and pouring forth money, benefits, services, resource developmental projects. The nature of the rights held by recipients of various types of governmentally-granted franchise, privilege, investment, or subsidy is generally unclear. Typically, rights held by recipients of government largess, differ in many respects from the usual property rights held by individuals. Governmental benefits or privileges may produce income for the recipient or be responsible for his income but it is commonly held much less securely than conventional assets, such as real estate, stocks, bonds, other types of investment, or annuities.

The article focuses on the 1948 revision of the American Accounting Association's statement of principles. The proposal of the committees, masquerading under the label "concepts and standards," is precisely in line with the idea that the private owner is entitled to nothing more once he has as a matter of bookkeeping-written off his costs. It is precisely in line with the accounting ideas of those who have been campaigning for the impairment and minimizing of private property rights in every possible way and the concurrent glorifying and maximizing of the so-called public interest in property, looking toward the goal of complete suppression of private rights and complete state ownership, or socialism. It seems to echo the arbitrary accounting policy of one of the agencies participating in this campaign, the Federal Power Commission, which provides for writing off recorded assets and the related equity of investors, retroactively for an indefinite period, on one flimsy excuse or another, and at the same time insists that under no circumstances can there be any restorations or adjustments in the other direction, as this would constitute that terrible thing labeled "reaccounting" by members of the Commission's staff.

The article discusses the property rights of stockholders under the 1933 Illinois Business Corporation Act. Throughout the article the rights of the stockholders are treated as contract rights. It is, true that the contract rights of stockholders are subject to the provisions in the articles of incorporation and the general incorporation act. So, theoretically, it would seem that when directors exercise powers, which they can exercise under the provisions of the articles and the act, they are complying with the terms of the contract under which stockholders contribute their capital. It is possible under the Illinois Act to remove the stockholder's pre-emptive right to subscribe to additional stock in the corporation when it is issued. This is accomplished by making explicit provision to that effect in the articles of incorporation. The articles need not give the directors the power to fix the consideration to be received for shares or to value the property exchanged for shares. The Business Corporation Act provides that the consideration for the issuance of shares may be paid, in whole or in part, in money, in other property, tangible or intangible, or in labor or services actually performed for the corporation.

The article examines developments and problems regarding the land reform and planning laws introduced in Great Britain. It explains that the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947 had been criticized for its provisions about "private ownership" of land. Under the 1947 Act, landowners are required to obtain permission for whatever they intend to use the land. The Decree on Land enacted by the Russian Soviet Congress in November 1917 is also mentioned. Other provisions of the 1947 Act and legislation are also presented.

Focuses on the expropriation of private property by the United States government, from 1789-1910. Economic implications of expropriation; Information on expropriation.

Discusses the economic relevance of property rights. Impact of property rights on the allocation and distribution of economic resources; Management of private property rights; Issues of slave consumption related to property rights management.

Discusses issues on private property rights, related to the use of scarce resources in economics. Conflicts over the use of scarce resources; Social and political issues associated with resource scarcity.

A research scholar S. Mukhopadhyay, under the guidance of sociologist K.P. Chattopadhyay, took up an enquiry on the problem of juvenile delinquency in Calcutta, India, in 1951. The large increase in car thefts by juveniles in U.S. and Great Britain appears to the present writer to be due to this clash of ideologies regarding private property at the present time. The old rights have remained while new ideas that militate against their existence in many spheres have come to be accepted, by the state as well as its citizens. Here is definite maladjustment in the world of ideas as applied to practice in the matter of property rights. It has to be recognized and proper integration attempted to remove the maladjustment. In the country this conflict of ideas is still in the incipient stage, due to lack of education largely. Among the educated section of the populace, the adolescent college and high school students have shown symptoms of disregard of cultural sanctions not indeed by stealing, but by acts of "Vandalism" which is one form of disregard of property rights, whenever, they have felt strongly about some deprivation of rights, some times genuine and sometimes judged to be so in the light of political views and propaganda.

This article focuses on the Vagrancy Act of 1547, passed in England in King Edwards VI's first year, which imposed slavery as a punishment for the refusal to work. Runaway slaves were to be enslaved for life; on the second escape they could be put to death. On the other hand, if a slave acquired through inheritance or otherwise a "convenient Living" he was to be discharged. If no private individual cared to claim a vagabond's service, then he was to be sent to his place of birth, and there employed as a parish or corporation slave; the community having the same rights of selling him or leasing his services as a private master would. "Clerks" were not to be exempted from the workings of the act; but they were to be allowed to choose their own master, if they could find one who would bind himself for 20 pounds to keep them as a slave for a year. If they failed in their quest for a compliant and wealthy friend, they could be released from servitude after a year. There is no mention of increased penalties for subsequent offences in the act; except for the absconding slaves, who were condemned to perpetual slavery for the first offence, and death as a felon for the second.

The mineral rights on land being surface-mined in eastern Kentucky were originally sold before the turn of the century for as little as fifty cents an acre. Comments in the press and elsewhere from time to time compare this price to the current-dollar values of these rights. The implication of the statements is that the original seller of the mineral rights was underpaid. In this article, the original owners of the land are shown to have been overpaid for the mineral rights. A comparison of the purchase price to the current value of land rights loses its significance over very long spans of time. The 1886 and 1914 purchase prices of eastern Kentucky mineral rights, just as the 1867 purchase price of Alaska, should be regarded as irrelevant dollar amounts. A meaningful analysis must be confined to the current values of surface and mineral rights, the current depletion allowances and taxes, the current social problems, and the current risks. However, if a person insists upon comparing the present value of the mineral rights on land suited for surface mining in eastern Kentucky to the original purchase prices around the turn of the century, his only conclusion is that the original landowners were overpaid. The buyers of the mineral rights in eastern Kentucky in the late 1800's and early 1900's, from an investment standpoint, either did not calculate their rates of return very carefully or were too optimistic in their expectations.

The article discusses the influence of lawyers on the pivotal events of India's national legislative history during 1921-56, with primary emphasis upon the British Indian period. As per general influence, throughout this legislative history lawyers tended to dominate the legislature, its leading political parties, and the executive. In the British Indian Central Legislature, lawyers usually formed the largest single occupational group. While under the British, the pivotal pre-independence event was the Government acceptance of the 1941 Hindu Law Committee Report recommendation in favor of a Hindu Code. In the second half of the 19th century vast fields of British Indian commercial, criminal, public, and procedural law were codified and given a modern and/or English content, an intended uniform application, and an exclusively secular sanction. The most important single measure was the Hindu Women's Right to Property Act of 1937, known as the Deshmukh Act after Dr. C. Deshmukh, its physician-social reformer author.

This article responds to the study presented by Oliver E. Williamson which focuses on the market failure considerations in the vertical integration of production. The author's criticism are that Williamson might have helped the reader by: (1) showing more fully how the various points fit together (2) looking more consistently at property rights and probing further into the reasons for the behavior that has been described. The author stated that he do not mean that changes in claim structures are the only variables at work. The authors has suggested that changes in rights with vertical integration constitute a major factor in the reduction of transaction costs.

The article discusses new dimensions for transitional marine resources. The author states the essentially, seas are in a stage of transition. They are moving from a condition in which property rights are almost non-existent to a condition in which property rights of some form will become appropriated or made available. The transition stage may be of short duration for certain resources along the sea's margins, or it may be much longer for the relatively abundant resources far from shore. Rights may go to individual states or to some agent acting on behalf of it regional or world communities. But eventually, as the sea's resources become more valuable, exclusive rights will be acquired. The acquisition of exclusive rights will clearly affects the distribution of the sea's wealth. And while it is conceivable that such distribution can be achieved without conflict, it is most unlikely that nations will be able to develop the inordinate amounts of good will, mutual understanding and institutional innovations that will be necessary to do this. A more reasonable goal is to reduce the potential for conflict and minimize damages from conflict. Social scientists can help in reaching this goal. But to do so, they will have to turn to seas in earnest and deal with new dimensions that mark the use of sea's resources.

The article explores the evolution of property/ownership in after-war constitutions in Europe. A highly important problem that is actively discussed in modem times, especially after the world war, is undisputedly that of property. The origin and legitimacy of property have always been matters for controversy; but the socialist schools have put down this question for immediate action. The attacks directed by socialist schools against the principle of individual property, and the idea of the socialization of property are not new. The principle according to which the rights to private ownership are sacred and inviolable is today nothing more than a fiction. It is ridiculous still to speak of the liberty of property and contract, which in reality no longer exists. For some time attention has been directed to the fact that ownership is no longer unlimited, by citing public dispossession, the right of one's neighbor and, particularly in Germany, Section 308 of the penal code now in force, where ownership is limited by public law.

The existence of a landless peasantry is a characteristic feature of many Asian countries, brought about by the alienation of peasant holdings far plantations, the breakdown of traditional agricultural systems, the emergence of a dual economy, and the fragmentation of the remaining peasant holdings into uneconomic units. The process is illustrated in some detail with reference to Ceylon. Efforts to solve the problem by land redistribution, credit facilities, and colonization schemes are described. It is concluded that, in present circumstances, State-aided settlement will continue to be the typical pattern for some time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pigou's contention that increasing cost industries tend to produce more than the socially optimal quantity was based on the proposition that, in equilibrium, price would equal average social cost rather than marginal social cost. Even after Viner, following the work of Knight and others, had drawn the distinction between technological and pecuniary externalities, over-exploitation of free-access resources remained as an important residual theorem.
Extension of Knight's model from one to two variable factors exposes a further gap in Pigou's argument. Pigou implicitly assumed that the industry would produce any given output at minimum social cost, neglecting the possibility that discrepancies between private and social products would result in inefficient factor combinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the aesthetic considerations and the exercise of the police power in relation to public safety, order and convenience. As a practical matter in planning, aesthetic and the recognized other considerations are so interwoven and so frequently present together that consideration of situations involving pure aesthetics unmixed with the other supporting considerations gets into the courts but infrequently. So far as public property is concerned even local communities have always had the power to place control of public property in the hands of public agents, provided the legislative power of the state has delegated that power to the city, town, or other local community. Realization is growing of the public element in the appearance of private property, not only the public's pleasure or annoyance in looking at it, but the fact that its appearance has an effect in neighborhood values and community culture. Another general concept of aesthetic control is that new structures must not be either "too similar" or "too dissimilar" to their setting. Design must have some individuality, but must be harmonious.