caa a22 4500 388069406 CHVBK 20180307125143.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e199903 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S0022050700022312 doi S0022050700022312 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S0022050700022312 Clay Karen B. Karen B. Clay is Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics, The Heinz School, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890, and Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Toronto, 150 St. George St., Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A1 Property Rights and Institutions: Congress and the California Land Act 1851 [Elektronische Daten] [Karen B. Clay] Governments frequently establish institutions to govern the transition in property rights when they acquire territory or experience radical changes in political regimes. By examining a specific example—the United States' acquisition of California from Mexico in 1848, this article investigates general questions about these institutions and institutional choice. The article fmds that the specific institution that Congress chose for California best balanced the interests of the federal government, American owners of land grants, and American squatters and settlers. Further, despite the lobbying, litigation, and delay associated with the institution, the institution was more efficient than prior institutions. Copyright © The Economic History Association 1999 The Journal of Economic History Cambridge University Press 59/1(1999-03), 122-142 0022-0507 59:1<122 1999 59 JEH https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050700022312 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050700022312 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Clay Karen B. Karen B. Clay is Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics, The Heinz School, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890, and Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Toronto, 150 St. George St., Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A1 NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- The Journal of Economic History Cambridge University Press 59/1(1999-03), 122-142 0022-0507 59:1<122 1999 59 JEH CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge