Property rights distribution and entrepreneurial rent-seeking in Romanian forestry: a perspective of private forest owners

Abstract

In the framework of a broader political economics approach, this paper intends to enhance the understanding of the role of rent-seeking practices in the delineation of clear property rights in forestry. The research background is provided by the institutional changes occurring in the Romanian forestry sector as a consequence of the transition period and the accession to the European Union. The entrepreneurial approach to rent-seeking requires clarifications of the perspective under which private forest owners are analysed in order to position this study within ongoing discussions regarding the role of rentseeking and its social impact. The conceptual framework employed distinguishes between rents resulting from entrepreneurship in conventional production functions and rents resulting from institutional entrepreneurship. A typology of entrepreneurial rent-seeking is developed for further understanding of the effects resulting from changes in the institutional setting of property rights. Using a qualitative approach, in the form of a case study, the research reveals perspectives of Romanian forest owners regarding barriers to production inherent in the current distribution of rights. Despite the extent of perceived profit-seeking barriers, owners' entrepreneurial rent-seeking actions intended to change property rights in their favour appear limited and constrained. Hence, identified hypotheses regarding the institutional context dependency of entrepreneurial rentseeking provide the basis for the future empirical identification of the role of institutional entrepreneurship within the forest production system.

A holistic approach to studying social-ecological systems and its application to southern Transylvania

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Navigating conflicting landscape aspirations: Application of a photo-based Q-method in Transylvania (Central Romania)

“…Much of the population became unemployed as a result of the closure of state farms and factories. Tenure changes were brought about by widespread privatization (early 1990s) and restitution laws (of 1991, 2000, and 2005) (Kuemmerle et al, 2009;Nichiforel and Schanz, 2009). Initially envisioned as a "return to a just order", the process of land restitution to pre-communist owners was intensely politicized (Verdery, 2003) and influenced by territorial administrative units (Verdery, 2002).…”

Carbon implications of forest restitution in post-socialist Romania

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