Unit 1: Market Failure: Property rights the Chinese Way (hilarious)

What do you do when you want to tear an apartment building down so that it can be redeveloped in to a (presumably) more profitable factory. If you own the entire building there may not be too much of an issue. But what happens when you only own six of the seven floors and the family on the highest level isn’t interested in moving out?


The answer is obvious - demolish as much as the bottom six floors as you can, and definitely including any access via stairs to the top level.

To the credit of the local court system, the developers have now been told to halt their work and restore one stairwell so that the family can access their apartment, while the court can fully investigate the situation.


Discussing the costs and benefits of lax government controls on investment and development could make for an interesting lesson starter!