Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economies, 12:117-130 (1996) 9 1996 Kluwer A~ademic Publishers The Property Rights Game: Discovering the Meaning of Private Property TOM G. GEURTS The Smeal College of Business Administration, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 AUSTIN J. JAFFE The Smeal College of Business Administration, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 Abstract In this paper we discuss the results of an educational game we have developed. This game deals with the acquisi- tion, use, and transfer of private property fights in land and shows participants the importance of property fights in market economies. While our findings are not scientific, they do show that production in a society with solely communal property collapses while production in a society with private property flourishes. We hope that these results encourage others to use this exercise as an educational experience for students. Key Words: Property fights, educational game What is common to many is taken least care of, for all men have greater regard for what is their own than for what they possess in common with others. --Aristotle 1. Introduction It is one thing to describe fundamental institutions essential to everyday life in a lecture; it is an entirely different matter to be able to participate in a classroom exercise so that one can understand the meaning of a concept. One such institution is the concept of the ownership of property, or more specifically the acquisition, use, and transfer of private property rights in land. For the past several years, we have developed and refined an exercise commonly known as THE GAME. Initially, we sought to simulate land use following von Th/inen's simple bid-rent model from Der Isolierte Staat (1826). 1We hoped that our institutional structures would lead to the concentric zone models that are commonly taught in many real estate and urban economics classes. However, as in all games, designers discover sooner or later that it is easy to produce the desired results by making the exercise virtually deterministic despite levels of disguises by constraining the behavior of the participants in the game. At the same time, it is easy to produce random outcomes in a relatively unconstrained game