Property Rights on a Cold War battlefield: managing broadcasting transmissions through the Iron Curtain

Abstract

This paper analyses the international regime governing the use of broadcasting frequencies in the long and medium wave bands in Europe from 1950 until 1970. It tries to fathom what prevented the regime from collapsing, even though Cold War political tensions increased incentives to break international rules. The overall intention is to contribute to a better understanding of management institutions for open access resources. Special attention is paid to the property rights that were established, the particular rules for the enforcement of these property rights and the motivations of the different agents involved.

Troubling Territory: West Germany in the European Airwaves

“…Faced with around 500 demands for 246 available frequencies, the conference involved complex negotiations over scarce resources. 30 Lacking a government of its own, Germany was represented by the occupying powers. Of these, France and Britain themselves were potentially bound by the plan.…”

Spectrum anarchy: why self-governance of the radio spectrum works better than we think

“…For example, it would be a very complex and costly task to exclude any given user from transmitting and receiving wireless signals using a Bluetooth and/or Wi-Fi transceiver (Punnoose et al ., 2001). Consequently, based on the common good features defined by Elinor Ostrom (1997, 2009, 2010), we concur with the previous research (Bustamante et al ., 2018; Henrich-Franke, 2011; Herter, 1985; Weiss et al ., 2015) that the exploitation of radio-electric spectrum bands for wireless transmissions is consistent with the definition of a CPR.…”