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Farmland, Loans, and Life Expectancy: The Effect of Wealth Transfers on Life Expectancy

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  • Roberts, Evan
  • Thomson, Henry
  • Liu, Jhih-Yun
  • Schub, Robert

Abstract

Demographers and other social scientists have long been interested in the effect of material resources on health. Establishing causality, however, is challenging because of ethical and practical issues with randomizing receipt of money or other resources in real-world settings. In this paper, we exploit a land redistribution lottery program in New Zealand that operated from 1893 to 1911 to address this challenge. The program required applicants to have similar levels of net wealth and to apply for specific land parcels. Each parcel was allocated through a separate lottery, and winners were prohibited from acquiring multiple farms. We construct a dataset of 2,247 paired applicants, including 1,105 winners and 1,142 losers. By linking application records to death records, we estimate both within-pair and unpaired models to assess the impact of receiving a farm with a subsidized mortgage on life span. Our results suggest that winning a farm led to modest improvements in life expectancy, with an average gain of approximately one year.

Suggested Citation

  • Roberts, Evan & Thomson, Henry & Liu, Jhih-Yun & Schub, Robert, 2025. "Farmland, Loans, and Life Expectancy: The Effect of Wealth Transfers on Life Expectancy," 2025 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2025, Denver, CO 360930, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea25:360930
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.360930
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