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classical liberal

Hernando de Soto

Hernando de Soto Polar

b. 1941

Also known as: de Soto

How Hernando de Soto is discussed in this archive

Referenced in 2 other works — including Report , and The Challenge of Poverty .

In Report : Karnik draws heavily on Hernando de Soto for his property-rights section, using de Soto's work on Peru and developing-country experience to argue that it is the enforcement of rights — not their formal existence — that matters for development and that the poor suffer most from non-enforcement.

In The Challenge of Poverty : De Soto's argument that defective property rights trap the poor is the pivotal theoretical claim in Lambsdorff's essay, used to recast property rights as an instrument of poverty alleviation rather than merely a safeguard of existing wealth.

Mentioned in (3)

Primary works (3)

  • PROSPERITY BEYOND OUR CITIES BY SPREADING ENTERPRISE · 2007
  • Report · 2005
    • "A sixth section, on property rights, draws heavily on Hernando de Soto to argue that it is the enforcement of rights — not their formal existence — that matters for development and that the poor suffer most from their non-enforcement." — Karnik names de Soto as the principal authority on property-rights enforcement as the key institutional gap for the poor
    • "Property-rights enforcement — not their formal legal existence — is the key institutional gap for the poor, drawing on de Soto's work on Peru and developing-country experience." — key-points reprise re-credits de Soto for the enforcement-not-existence framing
  • The Challenge of Poverty · 2002
    • "leaning heavily on Hernando de Soto's argument that defective property rights are the principal cause of poverty in the global South" — De Soto's thesis is Lambsdorff's central analytical anchor for the property-rights solution to poverty
    • "Hernando de Soto, he contends that the poor in the South already control assets (huts, plots, slum housing) but lack the legal instruments to transform them into capital" — the 'dead capital' argument is the operational policy prescription flowing from de Soto's framework