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Property rights revisited

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Abstract
Over the last 20 years, a large number of papers have tried to quantify the effect of property rights on a wide range of variables like growth, trade and to a lesser extent, inequality. However, these studies have been inherently limited by measures of the security of property rights that are currently available. These suffer from any of a number of shortcomings, ranging from a lack of availability, objectivity, or the fact that they measure a broader concept like the rule of law. This paper tries to address this gap by proposing a new index of property rights. Specifically, we use a state-space model to combine all available indicators tracking the security of property rights into an index that covers 191 countries over the period 1994–2014. We compare it to the existing indicators by revisiting the link between inequality, democracy and property rights, using a panel threshold regression model with fixed-effects. Depending on the measure of property rights that is used, there can be considerable differences in the size, significance and even the sign of the estimated parameters. Specifically, in contrast with existing measures, we find that a strengthening of the security of property rights reduces inequality in highly democratic countries only via the government's redistribution channel.
Keywords
Political Science and International Relations, Economics and Econometrics, Property rights, Institutions, Inequality, State-space model, Government redistribution, Panel threshold regression

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:

MLA
Ouattara, B., and Samuel Standaert. “Property Rights Revisited.” EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, vol. 64, 2020, doi:10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2020.101895.
APA
Ouattara, B., & Standaert, S. (2020). Property rights revisited. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, 64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2020.101895
Chicago author-date
Ouattara, B., and Samuel Standaert. 2020. “Property Rights Revisited.” EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY 64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2020.101895.
Chicago author-date (all authors)
Ouattara, B., and Samuel Standaert. 2020. “Property Rights Revisited.” EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY 64. doi:10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2020.101895.
Vancouver
1.
Ouattara B, Standaert S. Property rights revisited. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 2020;64.
IEEE
[1]
B. Ouattara and S. Standaert, “Property rights revisited,” EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, vol. 64, 2020.
@article{8665230,
  abstract     = {{Over the last 20 years, a large number of papers have tried to quantify the effect of property rights on a wide range of variables like growth, trade and to a lesser extent, inequality. However, these studies have been inherently limited by measures of the security of property rights that are currently available. These suffer from any of a number of shortcomings, ranging from a lack of availability, objectivity, or the fact that they measure a broader concept like the rule of law. This paper tries to address this gap by proposing a new index of property rights. Specifically, we use a state-space model to combine all available indicators tracking the security of property rights into an index that covers 191 countries over the period 1994–2014. We compare it to the existing indicators by revisiting the link between inequality, democracy and property rights, using a panel threshold regression model with fixed-effects. Depending on the measure of property rights that is used, there can be considerable differences in the size, significance and even the sign of the estimated parameters. Specifically, in contrast with existing measures, we find that a strengthening of the security of property rights reduces inequality in highly democratic countries only via the government's redistribution channel.}},
  articleno    = {{101895}},
  author       = {{Ouattara, B. and Standaert, Samuel}},
  issn         = {{0176-2680}},
  journal      = {{EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY}},
  keywords     = {{Political Science and International Relations,Economics and Econometrics,Property rights,Institutions,Inequality,State-space model,Government redistribution,Panel threshold regression}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{22}},
  title        = {{Property rights revisited}},
  url          = {{http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2020.101895}},
  volume       = {{64}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}

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