Chapter Questions
Why did Srey Neth’s store fail?
What does it mean to have property rights in a good?
Why does investment bring pain before pleasure?
Why does lack of property rights discourage people from making investments?
Why did lack of property rights reduce investment in Russia?
Why would insecure property rights in grades cause students to study less?
Why does lack of property rights cause people to hide wealth?
Why does collective ownership discourage wealth creation?
What happened on private plots of farm land in the former Soviet Union?
Why did lack of property rights doom the Truffula trees in Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax ?
What is the “tragedy of the commons”?
What are rival goods?
What are excludable goods?
What happens to resources afflicted by the tragedy of the commons?
Why would making a lake excludable help preserve a fish population?
How do secure property rights solve the tragedy of the commons problem?
What are public goods?
Why doesn’t Adam Smith’s invisible hand cause self-interested people to provide public goods?
What are free-riders?
What is the difference between a national and global public good?
Why are governments usually needed to provide public goods?
In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory why did Willy Wonka initially shut down his factory?
What is intellectual property?
Is intellectual property rival or nonrival?
Has the Internet made music and movies more or less excludable?
How could movie, music, and book producers profit even if people freely take their property?
How could intellectual property holders use self-enforcement to reduce Internet piracy?
What is real estate?
What is collateral?
Why do collateral-backed loans make it much easier for people in rich countries to buy homes?
Why are banks reluctant to make collateral-backed loans on property whose ownership isn’t diligently recorded?
What is informal ownership?
What is dead capital?
What is the problem with dead capital?
Why is Native-American land in the U.S. dead capital?
Why are so many businesses in poor countries only informally owned?
What problems plague informally owned businesses?
What are Linux and Wikipedia?
Who owns Linux and Wikipedia?
Why does the success of Linux and Wikipedia challenge the worldview of those who believe in the importance of property rights for wealth creation?