Property rights in a flea market economy
This paper studies liberalized grain markets in Madagascar and examines how property rights are protected and contracts are enforced among agricultural traders. We find that the incidence of theft and breach of contract is low and that the losses resulting from such instances are small. This, howeve...
| Autores principales: | , |
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| Formato: | Artículo preliminar |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
International Food Policy Research Institute
1999
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/161324 |
| _version_ | 1855542891831623680 |
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| author | Fafchamps, Marcel Minten, Bart |
| author_browse | Fafchamps, Marcel Minten, Bart |
| author_facet | Fafchamps, Marcel Minten, Bart |
| author_sort | Fafchamps, Marcel |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | This paper studies liberalized grain markets in Madagascar and examines how property rights are protected and contracts are enforced among agricultural traders. We find that the incidence of theft and breach of contract is low and that the losses resulting from such instances are small. This, however, does not result from reliance on legal institutions -- actual recourse to police and courts is fairly rare, except in cases of theft -- but from traders’ reluctance to expose themselves to opportunism. As a result, Malagasy grain trade resembles a flea market, with little or no forward contracting and high transactions costs. The dominant contract enforcement mechanism is trust-based relationships. Trust is established primarily through repeated interaction with little role for referral by other traders. Information on bad clients does not circulate widely, hence severely limiting group punishments for non payment. |
| format | Artículo preliminar |
| id | CGSpace161324 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 1999 |
| publishDateRange | 1999 |
| publishDateSort | 1999 |
| publisher | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| publisherStr | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1613242025-11-06T07:25:42Z Property rights in a flea market economy Fafchamps, Marcel Minten, Bart property rights grain This paper studies liberalized grain markets in Madagascar and examines how property rights are protected and contracts are enforced among agricultural traders. We find that the incidence of theft and breach of contract is low and that the losses resulting from such instances are small. This, however, does not result from reliance on legal institutions -- actual recourse to police and courts is fairly rare, except in cases of theft -- but from traders’ reluctance to expose themselves to opportunism. As a result, Malagasy grain trade resembles a flea market, with little or no forward contracting and high transactions costs. The dominant contract enforcement mechanism is trust-based relationships. Trust is established primarily through repeated interaction with little role for referral by other traders. Information on bad clients does not circulate widely, hence severely limiting group punishments for non payment. 1999 2024-11-21T09:54:55Z 2024-11-21T09:54:55Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/161324 en Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Fafchamps, Marcel; Minten, Bart. 1999. Property rights in a flea market economy. MTID Discussion Paper 27. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/161324 |
| spellingShingle | property rights grain Fafchamps, Marcel Minten, Bart Property rights in a flea market economy |
| title | Property rights in a flea market economy |
| title_full | Property rights in a flea market economy |
| title_fullStr | Property rights in a flea market economy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Property rights in a flea market economy |
| title_short | Property rights in a flea market economy |
| title_sort | property rights in a flea market economy |
| topic | property rights grain |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/161324 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT fafchampsmarcel propertyrightsinafleamarketeconomy AT mintenbart propertyrightsinafleamarketeconomy |