For a long time, Western economists failed to appreciate the relationship between private property rights and economic development. Karl Marx saw private property as the source of wealth and called for its elimination to promote equality.
A century and a half later, we know that a country without a formal system for registering property rights limits its own economic development and prevents its citizens from realizing their full potential. It’s a simple yet startling fact: The road to economic development runs through the county clerk’s office at the local courthouse.