That the initial allocation of rights affects final outcomes is a foundational tenet of institutional economics and the Coase theorem; no specific citation is strictly required, though empirical studies like property rights reforms continually substantiate it.
The claim states that the initial allocation of rights affects the final outcome in the presence of externalities. This is a foundational proposition in legal and economic theory (commonly known as the Coase theorem when transaction costs are non-zero, or the failure of invariance when wealth effects and externalities are present). It is a well-established concept in economics, making it effectively common knowledge by definition/observation within the field, though paper [2] provides strong empirical backing in an institutional context.