Untitled Land, Occupational Choice, and Agricultural Productivity

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chen, Chaoran
• 署名单位: National University of Singapore
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-MACROECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7707
• DOI: 10.1257/mac.20140171
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 91-121
• 关键词: aggregate productivity; size distribution; food problem; GROWTH; OWNERSHIP; RIGHTS; COSTS

摘要

The prevalence of untitled land in poor countries helps explain the international agricultural productivity differences. Since untitled land cannot be traded across farmers, it creates land misallocation and distorts individuals' occupational choice between farming and working outside agriculture. I build a two-sector general equilibrium model to quantify the impact of untitled land. I find that economies with higher percentages of untitled land would have lower agricultural productivity; land titling can increase agricultural productivity by up to 82.5 percent. About 42 percent of this gain is due to eliminating land misallocation, and the remaining is due to eliminating distortions in individuals' occupational choice.