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Dimensions of Land Inequality and Economic Development

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  • Mr. Lennart Erickson
  • Mr. Dietrich Vollrath

Abstract

There are several theories linking land inequality with aspects of economic development. Empirical work on these theories has attempted to establish a relationship between land inequality and institutions, financial development, and education. This research, though, has relied on measures of land inequality that capture only inequality within the class of landholders, ignoring completely the issue of landlessness. This omission raises suspicion about the usefulness of those empirical results. We use a new measure of the breadth of landholdings across the agricultural population to address this issue. We test the proposed relationships regarding land inequality and development using the new measure. The regressions fail to find significant and robust relationships between land inequality of either type and institutions or financial development. We do find that lower land inequality across agricultural populations, but not inequality within the landholding class, is associated with greater public provision of education.

Suggested Citation

  • Mr. Lennart Erickson & Mr. Dietrich Vollrath, 2004. "Dimensions of Land Inequality and Economic Development," IMF Working Papers 2004/158, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2004/158
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    Cited by:

    1. Luis Bauluz & Yajna Govind & Filip Novokmet, 2020. "Global Land Inequality," PSE Working Papers halshs-03022318, HAL.
    2. Mourmouras, Alexandros & Rangazas, Peter, 2009. "Fiscal Policy And Economic Development," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(4), pages 450-476, September.
    3. Sharp, Paul & Boberg-Fazlic, Nina & Lampe, Markus & Martinelli Lasheras, Pablo, 2020. "Winners and Losers from Enclosure: Evidence from Danish Land Inequality 1682-1895," CEPR Discussion Papers 14616, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. repec:rac:ecchap:2017-05 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Mr. Dietrich Vollrath & Mr. Lennart Erickson, 2007. "Land Distribution and Financial System Development," IMF Working Papers 2007/083, International Monetary Fund.
    6. Odusola, Ayodele, 2017. "Agriculture, Rural Poverty and Income Inequality in sub-Saharan Africa," UNDP Africa Economists Working Papers 266998, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    7. Ayaz, Muhammad & Mughal, Mazhar, 2023. "Land inequality and landlessness in Pakistan: Measuring the diverse nature of land disparities," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    8. Ece H. Guleryuz, 2017. "Growth Performance of MENA and African Countries: Impacts of the Variations in Land and Natural Resource Ownershýp," Eurasian Journal of Economics and Finance, Eurasian Publications, vol. 5(4), pages 76-84.
    9. Joerg Baten & Ralph Hippe, 2018. "Geography, land inequality and regional numeracy in Europe in historical perspective," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 79-109, March.
    10. Vivien Kappel, 2010. "The Effects of Financial Development on Income Inequality and Poverty," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 10/127, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    11. de Zwart, Pim & Soekhradj, Phylicia, 2023. "Sweet equality: Sugar, property rights, and land distribution in colonial Java," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    12. Boberg-Fazlić, Nina & Lampe, Markus & Martinelli Lasheras, Pablo & Sharp, Paul, 2022. "Winners and losers from agrarian reform: Evidence from Danish land inequality 1682–1895," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    13. Hossein Azadi & Eric Vanhaute, 2019. "Mutual Effects of Land Distribution and Economic Development: Evidence from Asia, Africa, and Latin America," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(6), pages 1-15, June.
    14. Gustavo Anríquez & Genny Bonomi, 2007. "Long-Term Farming Trends. An Inquiry Using Agricultural Censuses," Working Papers 07-20, Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO - ESA).
    15. Roberto Ezcurra & Izaskun Zuazu, 2022. "Political equality and quality of government," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(2), pages 269-293, May.
    16. Ece Guleryuz, 2016. "Determinants of the Contemporary Inequality among MENA and African Countries: What are in the variation of Land and Natural Resource ownership?," EcoMod2016 9317, EcoMod.
    17. Klump, Rainer & Prüfer, Patricia, 2005. "How to prioritise policies for poverty reduction: Applying Bayesian Model Averaging to Vietnam," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Kiel 2005 27, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    18. Savoia, Antonio & Easaw, Joshy & McKay, Andrew, 2010. "Inequality, Democracy, and Institutions: A Critical Review of Recent Research," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 142-154, February.
    19. K. Kareemulla & Pandian Krishnan & S. Ravichandran & B. Ganesh Kumar & Sweety Sharma & Ramachandra Bhatta, 2021. "Spatiotemporal Analysis of Size and Equity in Ownership Dynamics of Agricultural Landholdings in India Vis-à-Vis the World," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-25, September.
    20. Nadezhda V. Baryshnikova & Ngoc T.A. Pham & Maria M. Wihardja, 2016. "Does Political and Economic Inequality Affect Institutional Quality?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 92(297), pages 190-208, June.
    21. Muhammad Ayaz & Mazhar Mughal, 2023. "Land Inequality and Landlessness in Pakistan Authors," Working Papers hal-04004784, HAL.
    22. UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa & Ayodele Odusola, "undated". "Agriculture, Rural Poverty and Income Inequality in sub-Saharan Africa," UNDP Africa Policy Notes 2017-05, United Nations Development Programme, Regional Bureau for Africa.
    23. Abubakar, Ismaila Rimi, 2021. "Predictors of inequalities in land ownership among Nigerian households: Implications for sustainable development," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    24. World Bank, 2009. "Kenya - Poverty and Inequality Assessment : Executive Summary and Synthesis Report," World Bank Publications - Reports 3081, The World Bank Group.

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