EH.Net Abstracts in Economic History

                ABSTRACTS IN ECONOMIC HISTORY
                     (c) 2001 EH.Net
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Name: Meir Kohn
Email:  mkohn at dartmouth.edu
Institution:  Dartmouth College

Co-author:  none

Title:  A Finance Approach to Understanding Patterns of Land Tenure

Internet Address of abstracted work: 
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~mkohn/01-12.pdf

By mail:
Department of Economics
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH 03755
USA

Language:  English

Abstract:
Economists and economic historians have generally understood 
different forms of land tenure as arrangements for the supply of 
labor. This paper suggests a different interpretation - that 
land-tenure arrangements be understood rather as arrangements for the 
supply of financing. The cost and availability of financing depend on 
the arrangements available to ensure the providers of the financing a 
fair return on their investment. The paper argues that the different 
forms of land tenure may best be understood in the context of such 
arrangements - as alternative ways of providing the family farm with 
the external financing that it requires. The discussion focuses on 
land-tenure arrangements in pre-industrial Europe, but the 
conclusions hold quite generally.

Bibliography: Kohn, Meir. "A Finance Approach to Understanding 
Patterns of Land Tenure," Dartmouth College, Department of Economics, 
Working Paper Number 01-12, September 2001.

Subject:  A
Geographical Area:  4
Country/Region: Europe
Time Period:  3

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