Agricultural modernization and redistributive conflict

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Falcone, Stefano; Rosenberg, Michele
• 署名单位: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC); CSIC - Institut d'Analisi Economica (IAE); Barcelona School of Economics; University of Essex
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103529
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: Agricultural modernization; Land conflict; INEQUALITY; Social movement

摘要

Agricultural modernization is a critical driver of economic development. However, it can generate conflicts on previously uncontested land. This paper shows that the expansion of capital-intensive agriculture induced by market-oriented reforms and technological innovation in the mid-1990s in Brazil increased the number of land occupations by subsistence farmers and rural workers. Our identification strategy exploits local variation in the profitability of investments in soy production given by geographic characteristics and the timing of our shock in a difference-in-differences setting. We find that higher land inequality increases conflict by decreasing land access for subsistence farmers and rural workers while creating political incentives for social movements opposing large farm expansion.