RAZORBACKS, TICKY COWS, AND THE CLOSING OF THE GEORGIA OPEN RANGE - THE DYNAMICS OF INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE UNCOVERED

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: KANTOR, SE
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050700040146
• 发表日期: 1991
• 页码: 861-886
• 关键词: agriculture

摘要

This article attempts to explain why the adoption of potentially productive institutions is delayed and why inefficient ones persist by exploring the dynamics of institutional change in a particular historical case-the closing of the Georgia open range in the late nineteenth century. A closed range policy would have generated net benefits for specific regions of Georgia, but distributional conflicts, coupled with high transaction costs, made a voluntary agreement to do that unattainable. The article describes the Georgia legislature's important role in facilitating the adoption of a policy that led to more rapid agricultural development in the postbellum period.