Nobel Finalist Touts Property Rights

CHAPEL HILL — Property rights are necessary for the economic development of nations, a finalist for the 2002 Nobel Prize in economics said last week at UNC-Chapel Hill. Hernando de Soto, a Peruvian economist, spoke about the importance of property rights in pulling developing nations out of poverty. De Soto, who authored The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else, and The Other Path, talked about the effectiveness of the free market in fighting poverty. Without the clear assignment of property rights, backed by a credible legal system, he said, no developing nation would be able to accumulate capital.