Dogs & Economics

- Dogs Understand Property Rights, Even if Governments Don't

As I strolled through rice fields, I had no idea where the property boundaries were. But the dogs knew. Every time I crossed from one farm to another, a different dog barked. Those Indonesian dogs may have been ignorant of formal law, but they were positive about which assets their masters controlled.

I told the ministers that Indonesian dogs had the basic information they needed to set up a formal property system. By traveling their city streets and countryside and listening to the barking dogs, they could gradually work upward, through the vine of extralegal representations dispersed throughout their country, until they made contact with the ruling social contract. "Ah", responded one of the ministers, "jukum adat" (the people's law)!

"Listening to the Barking Dogs" Hernando De Soto

- Your Dog Owns Your House

Modern redistributive doctrine tells us, reasonably enough, that no output is ever produced by a single input. For even if you make something single-handed, you owe your capacity to do so to teachers who taught you, doctors who kept you alive, policemen who protect you from malefactors and supermarket operators who feed you. This is exactly where we came in when we found that your dog owned a portion of your house.

"Your Dog Owns Your House" Anthony de Jasay

- Keynes the Dog

I've previously mentioned that Greg Mankiw's dog is called Keynes, but I've just noticed that he's got     a beautiful new puppy, and has called it Tobin!! More here.

Comments

[dearieme]

If "Keynes" is well-named, the puppy won't be his offspring.

[M:D]

Quick question, would you know what breed De Soto's pet dogs are? Shepherds? Rottweilers?

Your post just reminded me of this quote from his old interview on The Economist:

Marx and Engels, Mr de Soto's pet dogs, were so named because “they are German, hairy and have no respect for property.”