Land Reforms and Economic Development

Abstract

We demonstrate that there is a nexus between land transfers and human capital formation. A sequence of land redistributions enables the beneficiaries to educate their children and thus to escape from poverty and to overcome child labor. We find that open access to land markets should be prohibited for beneficiaries for some time. Moreover, a temporary state of inequality among the poor is unavoidable. Finally, a successful land reform allows for the transition of a society from an agriculture-based state of poverty to a human capital-based developed economy.

Keywords: Poverty, land reforms, land market access, migration, transition

JEL Classification: I28, I38, O11, O15, Q15