Tag: Robert Thomas

Property Rights and Growth

Posted in economic institutions, property rights, theory of economic growth

North and Thomas argue that the establishment and enforcement of property rights has been a major cause of economic growth. A person who has property rights over a particular resource has the right to control it and use it as he pleases. Property rights are determined in part by law and in part by social conventions…

Feudalism

Posted in economic institutions, history of economic growth, history of trade and commerce, political institutions, property rights

Feudalism was the economic and political system of Europe during the Middle Ages. One might be tempted to dismiss it as a primitive system, discarded when something better came along, but to do so would be to misunderstand human institutions…

The End of Feudalism

Posted in economic institutions, history of economic growth, history of technology, history of trade and commerce, property rights

Custom played such a large role in governing feudal institutions that they were resistant to change. Feudalism could only be shaken by substantial changes to the external environment, and those changes finally came…