产权的自然起源——基于信号效应的群体涌现解释

The Natural Origin of Property Rights——An Explanation from An Evolutionary Perspective

产权是人类社会迄今各种经济制度安排的基础,也是社会主义市场经济制度的基石。本文对现有的关于产权起源的先占先得说、劳动赋予说和禀赋效应说进行了梳理和剖析,指出先占先得和劳动赋予描述了占有形成的时间和物理状态,是产权形成的前提,但占有转化为产权还需得到他人和社会的承认和尊重,从而不被抢夺和侵害。禀赋效应说提供了关于产权在冲突中产生的有启发性的新思路,但其依赖于占有者主观高估占有物、取得演化优势的强假定。本文提出,早期人类社会的产权不是起源于两个孤立的个人之间的领地之争,而是在共同生产生活的小群体社会内分配产出物时自然生成的。本文构建的演化博弈模型证明了,早期人类小群体社会中个体基于自我求生保全和繁衍的本能防卫需要,以及群体内的信息交流与信号效应,会遏制抢夺和侵犯对自然产权的冲击,从而演化出产权的初始和自然形态。本文对重新认识产权在人类社会起源中的作用及其演变具有创新性和启发性。

Property rights are the basis of various economic institutional arrangements of human societies so far, and the cornerstone of the socialist market economy system. Recent studies have shown that some kind of ownership contestation and protection phenomenon has been exhibited in the long prehistoric years of human harvesting and hunting, and even in some species of the animal world. This paper sorts out and dissects various accounts of the origin of property rights, including the first-come-first-served, labor endowment, and endowment effect, and points out that endowment effect as a phenomenon of free trade experiment after the establishment of property rights cannot be a prerequisite for generating property rights. Pre-emption and labor endowment are homologous and provide the physical basis for the establishment of property rights, but it is the multiple stress reactions to persons and their survival and reproduction dependencies that constitute the physiological, psychological and social basis for the establishment of property rights. The evolutionary game model constructed in the article proves that the endowment effect, which does not require the subjective valuation difference between the two parties competing for resources, can more realistically evolve the initial and natural form of property rights based on the instinctive defense needs to survive and reproduce. Due to the heterogeneity of human capabilities, the stability and integrity of property rights depend on the development of collective morality, and the deterrence of customary constraints up to the external coercion of law. The article is innovative and illuminating for reconceptualizing the role of property rights in the origin of human society and its evolution.