This career advancement award will permit Dr. Lenore J. Weitzman to initiate a major new line of inquiry on the role of property in modern society. The ultimate goal of scientific research in this area is to illuminate changes in the legal and cultural conceptions of property over time. This could very well be a pathbreaking endeavor: First, this work aims to address how property is defined, including a wide variety of forms of "new" property such as ideas and other creative assets, investments in human capital and future earnings capacity, and pensions. Second, it envisions examining how property is distributed in the United States, including measures of the "new property." Third, the research plans to relate this inquiry to how property and income are allocated, managed, and controlled in family units. And, finally, this agenda of study focuses directly on the role of law in shaping how marital property is held and how decisions about property are made. This support is crucial to future work on the transformation of property and to the career advancement of this investigator. Although Dr. Weitzman brings substantial expertise to studying this problem, greater knowledge of property law, legal history, and economics--to be developed under this career advancement award--is essential. Also, a pilot study is necessary in order to assess the feasibility of empirical work on the transformation of property and to develop the methodologies to map out the range, scope, and impact of the "new" property on society and within families in particular. Finally, coincident with the goals of the career advancement initiative, this award provides an opportunity for this investigator, who has not yet been evaluated for tenure, to embark on a promising new line of work.
