Albeit the relevance of property rights is well known, their determinants are still poorly understood. This workshop will discuss a series of recent contributions identifying two main trade-offs behind the design of property rights: the trade-off between the dispersed coercive power in a state of anarchy and the predation by a central enforcement authority and that between between inefficient exclusion from trade and inefficient expropriation. The explanatory power of both strands of literature will be evaluated. Finally, avenues for further research will be explored.