Land use restrictions, misallocation in agriculture, and aggregate productivity in Vietnam

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Le, Kien
• 署名单位: Louisiana State University System; Louisiana State University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2020.102465
• 发表日期: 2020
• 关键词: agriculture; misallocation; Land use restrictions; Aggregate productivity; Vietnam

摘要

This paper evaluates the effects of restricted land use rights on aggregate productivity using micro-level data within a quantitative model. In particular, I exploit the Rice Land Designation Policy in Vietnam, which forces farmers to produce rice on almost 45% of land plots. I use digitized versions of Vietnam's Local Land Use Atlas and Global Agro-Ecological Zones database to construct a micro-spatial dataset that shapes the model features and allows me to compare the restricted against a counterfactual efficient allocation. The main findings suggest that eliminating all land use restrictions leads to an 8.03% increase in real GDP per capita. While misallocation in agriculture has been studied extensively, the paper highlights a novel source of misallocation also prevalent in other countries such as China, Myanmar, and Uzbekistan.