ABSTRACT
In the debates over property rights, social scientists have been heavily divided over what one could term the dilemma of the ‘institutional chicken or egg’ (P. Ho and Spoor 2006): do institutions affect economy (and en passantwith it, society, polity and environment) or domarket forces (read: relative changes in factor prices and technology) determine institutional structure? As Libecap (1989, 6-7) phrased it, the neo-liberal literature posits that
[m]arket forces are argued to erode property rights institutions that are poorly suited for responding to new economic opportunities. (… ) History, however, shows that property institutions are not mere respondents to broad economic pressures, but that they in turn, shape the path of economic progress.
