The Puzzle of Counterproductive Property Rights Reforms: A Conceptual Analysis

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Abstract
Although various endeavours in improving the ecological and economic performance of several developing countries involves imposing reforms in various property rights systems, such reforms have failed to bring about the expected results and may have even resulted to counterproductive situations. As such, the need arises for examining the multiple failures of such reforms which involve the validity or relevance of the theory informing policy since the accepted theories today are mostly based on idealized models of both government and private property. Private property in conventional theory focuses on the right to alienate property through enforcing that the defining attribute of the private property relies on inheritance or sale and owners are able to realize their financial returns on investments through mechanisms like market institutions. This chapter thus attempts to provide a conceptual analysis of the reform tools on property rights that may result in counterproductivity.