Inequality in Landownership, the Emergence of Human-Capital Promoting Institutions, and the Great Divergence

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Galor, Oded; Moav, Omer; Vollrath, Dietrich
• 署名单位: Brown University; Hebrew University of Jerusalem; University of London; Royal Holloway University London; University of Houston System; University of Houston
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6527
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-937X.2008.00506.x
• 发表日期: 2009
• 页码: 143-179
• 关键词: income-distribution; GROWTH; DEMOCRACY; redistribution; TRANSFORMATION; accumulation; CONVERGENCE; COMPETITION; population; TRANSITION

摘要

This paper suggests that inequality in the distribution of landownership adversely affected the emergence of human-capital promoting institutions (e.g. public schooling), and thus the pace and the nature of the transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy, contributing to the emergence of the great divergence in income per capita across countries. The prediction of the theory regarding the adverse effect of the concentration of landownership on education expenditure is established empirically based on evidence from the beginning of the 20th century in the U.S.