What Begat Property?
探讨在开放资源过度使用和集体协议障碍下，财产权如何从无到有，分析五种可能的解释机制及其衍生问题。
How can we explain the emergence of property rights from their absence, in the face of incentives to overuse open-access resources and obstacles to collective agreement on property systems? Blackstone said “necessity begat property,” and Bentham said “property and law were born together,” but neither explained the process of conception, gestation, and delivery. Modern economists have sought to identify the institutional mechanisms enabling the birth of property. This essay examines five potential answers to the puzzle of what begat property and the further questions they entail.