Property rights justifications for planning and a theory of zoning

Abstract

In the field of planning research, the opportunities offered by the emergence of property rights economics ensuing from Ronald Coase's article 'The Problem of Social Cost' (Journal of Law and Economics, 1(3), 1960, 1-44) is yet to be exploited. Such opportunities have either been neglected or mistaken by many who subscribe to the antithesis of planning interventions predicated on Pigovian welfare economic arguments, While property rights economics does provide a much more powerful and meaningful analytical empirical approach to investigate government policies it does not necessarily lead to a categorical rejection of planning as a government policy area. This paper is divided into two parts. Part I elucidates by reference to examples and case studies some property rights grounds for planning intervention in resource allocation and management as a fruitful alternative to the market failure paradigm. Part II provides a framework for understanding zoning as a government function in terms of the property rights concepts discussed in Part I.