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Oak Leaves and the origins of the 1927 Radio Act: Comment

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Abstract

The Radio Act of 1927 was enacted so as to pre-empt the common law property rights then being asserted over radio waves, thus facilitating a political equilibrium where broadcasters and regulators shared license rents. The Oak Leaves case of November 1926, awarding AM frequency rights to a private broadcaster on the homesteading principle, helped motivate Congress, steering it towards a “public interest” licensing law. The Twight paper, while ostensibly critiquing this now standard view in the law and economics literature, actually endorses it. The existing history stands corroborated, uncorrected.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, 95616, and American Enterprise Institute, U.S.A

    Thomas W. Hazlett

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  1. Thomas W. Hazlett
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Hazlett, T.W. Oak Leaves and the origins of the 1927 Radio Act: Comment. Public Choice 95, 277–285 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004902006342

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004902006342

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