Alternative Views of Property Rights: Implications for Agricultural Use of Natural Resources

Abstract

Farmers' property rights1 to use natural resources are currently undergoing fundamental redefinitions as a consensus is forming for a mutually supportive agricultural and resource policy (Batie, Shabman, and Kramer). At the most general level, there is a shift in constraints. In the past, many resource policies were constrained by a concern for how well they served the interests of agriculture. Increasingly the question is now asked: How do agricultural programs and policies conform to goals of environmental protection and enhancement? The implications for agricultural land use rights are clear. Rights to use land are being conditioned on effects that uses have on others, principally users of water and aquatic environments (Braden, p. 21). These fundamental changes suggest a challenge to natural resource economists who wish to provide assistance in policy analysis and design. However, natural resource economics has several differing methodological perspectives that suggest various research approaches to natural resource problems.2 Furthermore, the various research agendas stemming from the methodologies differ in their usefulness in the policy process and suggest different roles for the natural resource economist. This paper identifies two major methodological constructs. Then it proceeds to identify the implications of these constructs for possible roles resource economists can assume in policy analysis and research. Implications of Economic Methodologies on Policy Analysis