Reputation-based ownership cannot be alienated or bequeathed

Evidence

Above all, owning a protection firm means owning a name, a reputation for supplying convincing protection. Unfortunately, however, the nature of reputation is such that the assets based on it are elusive, fragile, difficult to bequeath or trade. Property rights, as an economic rather than a legal concept, concern the power of an individual to profit from and alienate, or transfer, a particular asset (Barzel 1989: 2). While… quite clear that income can be derived from owning a name as a mafioso, the power to alienate the ownership of that name suffers from severe limitations which make it particularly difficult for a protection firm to protect its own property rights. Let us consider first the possibility of bequeathing. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 155

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines property rights in economic terms (Barzel’s profit-and-alienation test) and applies it to reputation assets, showing why the mafia’s core asset is unalienable.
• XREF: The unalienability of mafia name reputations parallels the succession crisis theme — early Puzo shows why Vito cannot simply will his protection business to Michael without the reputation transfer problem Gambetta describes.