Property Right Acquisition and Path Dependence: Nineteenth-Century Land Policy and Modern Economic Outcomes
比较1862-1940年间通过《宅地法》获得的土地与同期现金购买的土地，发现宅地制度对现代土地利用有负面影响，且无法由土地质量或产权特征解释，支持路径依赖假说。
Abstract In this paper we compare lands settled between 1862–1940 under the Homestead Act to lands that sold for cash during the same time. We combine recently digitised individual land patents with modern satellite data and find a negative effect of homesteading on modern land use that cannot be explained by land quality, title characteristics or unobserved differences in settlers. We test the hypothesis that early homestead settlement put homesteaders ‘in the way’ of future development, creating a path dependence in land use decisions for homesteads, despite the fact that their legal rights were identical to purchased lands.