The inaugural authors' lecture for the Coase Institute's book series on new institutional economcs will take place online Wednesday, October 23, 2024, starting at 16:00 UTC. In this lecture, Douglas Allen and Bryan Leonard will speak about their forthcoming book, Why The Rush? An Institutional Analysis of Homesteading and the Settlement of the West.

The authors argue that homesteading was an efficient means for the U.S. government to establish economic property rights over lands that were contested by others. They develop this theory and test it using the universe of land patents issued from 1862—1934. They explain the general pattern of settlement over time and space; show the connection of homesteading to the South and Reconstruction, railroads, and Indian land allotment; examine the special cases of Oklahoma and Canada; determine the long run impacts; and present a new definition of “the frontier” based on the idea of weak property rights. 

Douglas Allen is Burnaby Mountain Professor of Economics at Simon Fraser University. Bryan Leonard is associate professor of environmental and natural resource economics at the University of Wyoming. The book will be published as part of the Ronald Coase Institute series on new institutional economics with Cambridge University Press.

After the authors' presentation, Dominic Parker will discuss their manuscript. Parker's own research analyzes the effects of property rights and markets on environmental and natural resource policies. He is the Anderson-Bascom Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The event will conclude with Q and A.

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  Douglas Allen

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  Bryan Leonard

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  Dominic Parker

To attend: please register by clicking the link below or by cutting and pasting it into your browser. 
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XwqclZVQRMiIzYduNu-6ww
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