The determination of the “true” property boundary in planned development: a Coasian analysis

Abstract

This interdisciplinary paper, informed by research and practices in neo-institutional economics, property law and land surveying, is an exploratory account of the boundary as (a) the ontological foundation of private property in land and boundary dispute resolution, and (b) as a pre-contractual condition of any Coasian exchange of rights for planned urban development and space-relevant innovations. Under conditions of positive transaction costs according to the third Coase Theorem, with the help of real-life examples, the paper explains the choice of using the courts, instead of the market, as a means of resolving disputes over land boundaries. It does so in terms of two land surveying and three economic reasons. The surveying reasons are historical and cartographical. The economics reasons relate to the price level of land, the transaction costs of enforcing dispute resolutions and the externalities of land boundary determination.

Editorial: developments at the Annals of regional science 2020–2021

“…The five most downloaded papers published in the Annals of Regional Science, 2018-2021 and five most cited papers published in2018-2019 Trivez et (2018 argue that to resolve disputes over land boundaries under conditions of positive transaction costs according to what the authors term the third Coase Theorem, the choice may be to use the courts instead of the market. Zhang et al (2020) discuss how amenities in cities may act as a magnet to innovative firms.…”