We examine the development of de jure property rights to land by assessing how accurately governments recorded borders of property. We use surveys of farm parcels from two historical states, the Republic of the Orange Free State (OFS) and the South African Republic (ZAR), which are in modern-day South Africa, and employ a descriptive analysis to infer how accurately maps represent parcels of property. We argue that differences in state administrative capacity explains differences in map accuracy and therefore the provision of de jure property rights to land. We find that maps of farms in the ZAR, which had lower administrative capacity, tend to be less accurate than maps of farms in the OFS. Comparisons with military maps compiled under a different administration provide evidence that the costs incurred from previous administrations can limit future attempts to accurately record property. The analysis shows how state administrative capacity can facilitate (or hinder) the provision of property rights to land.

中文翻译：

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法律上的产权和国家能力：来自布尔共和国土地规范的证据

我们考察发展法律上的通过评估政府记录财产边界的准确程度来获得土地财产权。我们对位于现代南非的奥兰治自由州共和国 (OFS) 和南非共和国 (ZAR) 这两个历史国家的农场地块进行调查，并采用描述性分析来推断地图所代表的准确度财产包裹。我们认为，州行政能力的差异解释了地图准确性的差异，因此提供了法律上的土地财产权。我们发现行政能力较低的 ZAR 中的农场地图往往不如 OFS 中的农场地图准确。与不同政府编制的军事地图的比较提供了证据，证明前任政府产生的成本可能会限制未来准确记录财产的尝试。分析表明国家行政能力如何促进（或阻碍）土地产权的提供。