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Geography vs. Institutions at the Village Level

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  • Michael Grimm
  • Stephan Klasen

Abstract

There is a well-known debate about the roles of geography versus institutions in explaining the long-term development of countries. These debates have usually been based on cross-country regressions where questions about parameter heterogeneity, unobserved heterogeneity, and endogeneity cannot easily be controlled for. The innovation of Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson (2001) was to address this last point by using settler mortality as an instrument for geography-induced endogenous institutions and found that this supported their line of reasoning. We believe there is value-added to consider this debate at the micro level within a country as particularly questions of parameter heterogeneity and unobserved heterogeneity are likely to be smaller than between countries. Moreover, at the micro level it is possible to identify more precise transmission mechanisms from geography via institutions to economic development outcomes. In particular, we examine the determinants of economic development across villages on the Indonesian Island of Sulawesi and find that geography-induced endogenous emergence of land rights is the critical institutional link between geographic conditions and technological change. We therefore highlight and empirically validate a new transmission channel from endogenously generated institutions on economic development.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by CESifo Group Munich in its series CESifo Working Paper Series with number 2259.

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Date of creation: 2008
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Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_2259

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Keywords: geography; migration; land rights; institutions; technology adoption; agricultural development; Indonesia;

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References

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  1. Stephan Klasen & Thorsten Nestmann, 2004. "Population, Population Density, and Technological Change," CESifo Working Paper Series 1209, CESifo Group Munich.
  2. Brasselle, Anne-Sophie & Gaspart, Frederic & Platteau, Jean-Philippe, 2002. "Land tenure security and investment incentives: puzzling evidence from Burkina Faso," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 373-418, April.
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  6. Mundlack, Yair & Larson, Donald F. & Butzer, Rita, 2002. "Determinants of agricultural growth in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2803, The World Bank.
  7. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James A. Robinson, 2001. "The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1369-1401, December.
  8. Rodrik, Dani & Subramanian, Arvind & Trebbi, Francesco, 2002. "Institutions Rule: The Primacy of Institutions Over Geography and Integration in Economic Development," CEPR Discussion Papers 3643, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
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  16. Butzer, Rita & Larson, Donald F. & Mundlak, Yair, 2002. "Determinants Of Agricultural Growth In Thailand, Indonesia And The Philippines," Discussion Papers 14979, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Agricultural Economics and Management.
  17. Miet Maertens & Manfred Zeller & Regina Birner, 2006. "Sustainable agricultural intensification in forest frontier areas," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 34(2), pages 197-206, 03.
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Cited by:
  1. McMillan, Margaret & Masters, William A. & Kazianga, Harounan, 2012. "Rural demography, public services, and land rights in Africa: A village-level analysis in Burkina Faso," IFPRI discussion papers 1164, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

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