We examine three reforms to property rights introduced by the United States in the Philippines in the early 20th century: the redistribution of large estates to their tenants, the creation of a system of secure land titles, and a homestead program to encourage cultivation of public lands. During the first phase of American occupation (1898-1918), we find that the progress of implementing these reforms was very slow. As a consequence, tenure insecurity increased over this period, and the distribution of farm sizes remained extremely unequal. We identify two primary causes for the slow progress of reform: first, the high cost of implementing these programs was a major factor in reducing take-up. On the other hand, the government was reluctant to evict delinquent or informal cultivators, especially on public lands. This reduced the costs of tenure insecurity. Political constraints prevented the government from subsidizing land reforms to a greater degree.
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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number
14298.
Length: Date of creation: Sep 2008 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14298
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Find related papers by JEL classification: N45 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, and Regulation - - - Asia including Middle East N55 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries - - - Asia including Middle East P14 - Economic Systems - - Capitalist Systems - - - Property Rights P16 - Economic Systems - - Capitalist Systems - - - Political Economy of Capitalism Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation
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