Property without rights : origins and consequences of the property rights gap

"Major land reform programs have reallocated property in more than one-third of the world's countries in the last century and impacted over one billion people. But only rarely have these programs granted beneficiaries complete property rights. Why is this the case, and what are the consequences? This book draws on wide-ranging original data and charts new conceptual terrain to reveal the political origins of the property rights gap. It shows that land reform programs are most often implemented by authoritarian governments who deliberately withhold property rights from beneficiaries. In so doing, governments generate coercive leverage over rural populations and exert social control. This is politically advantageous to ruling governments but it has negative development consequences: it slows economic growth, productivity, and urbanization and it exacerbates inequality. The book also examines the conditions under which subsequent governments close property rights gaps, usually as a result of democratization or foreign pressure." -- Provided by publisher Cover 1 Half-title page 3 Series page 4 Title page 5 Copyright page 6 Contents 7 List of Figures 10 List of Tables 12 Acknowledgments 14 1 Introduction 21 1.1 Conceptualizing the Property Rights Gap 24 1.2 The Radical Shift in Property Rights in Latin America over the Last Century 28 1.3 Three Canonical Paths of Property Rights Gaps 30 1.4 Measuring the Property Rights Gap 32 1.5 Framing the Puzzle: Property Rights, Development, and Land Reform 35 1.6 Existing Explanations for the Underprovision of Property Rights 39 1.7 Reexamining the Political Origins of the Property Rights Gap 40 1.8 Consequences of Property Rights Gaps 46 1.9 Roadmap of the Book 47 2 Conceptualizing and Measuring the Property Rights Gap 52 2.1 The Dramatic Evolution of Property Rights in Latin America 54 2.2 Identifying and Defining Relevant Dimensions of Property Rights 60 2.3 Data Sources for Land Reform and Property Rights 70 2.4 Constructing the Property Rights Gap 72 2.5 Conclusion 90 3 The Political Origins of the Property Rights Gap 91 3.1 Prevailing Explanations for the Underprovision of Property Rights 93 3.2 Political Determinants of Redistributive Land Reform 102 3.3 Generating a Property Rights Gap: Granting Property without Rights 106 3.4 Closing the Property Rights Gap: Granting Property Rights without Property 120 3.5 Connecting the Theory to the Three Canonical Paths of Property Rights Gaps 140 3.6 Conclusion 142 4 Evidence on the Rise and Fall of Property Rights Gaps in Latin America 144 4.1 Research Design and Measurement Strategy 145 4.2 Political and Economic Patterns Tied to the Property Rights Gap 155 4.3 Statistical Analyses of the Property Rights Gap 161 4.4 Observable Implications: Cognate Policies of Rural Control and Strategic Rural Targeting 183 4.5 Conclusion 186 5 Consequences of the Property Rights Gap 188 5.1 Social and Economic Consequences of the Property Rights Gap 189 5.2 Political Consequences of the Property Rights Gap 203 5.3 Illustrative Consequences of the Property Rights Gap in Path A, Path B, and Path C Cases 207 5.4 Conclusion 222 6 Opening and Closing a Property Rights Gap in Peru 223 6.1 Case Selection for Subnational Analysis 223 6.2 The Generation of a Property Rights Gap in Peru 224 6.3 Closing the Property Rights Gap after the End of Land Reform 239 6.4 Conclusion 245 7 The Long-Term Consequences of Peru’s Property Rights Gap 247 7.1 Making Use of Peru’s Agrarian Reform Zones for Causal Identification 248 7.2 Data 252 7.3 Research Design 263 7.4 Investigating Estimation and Identification Assumptions 265 7.5 The Property Rights Gap and Development Outcomes 270 7.6 Alternative Explanations 278 7.7 Conclusion 280 8 Property Rights Gaps around the World 281 8.1 The Nature of Property Rights Gaps around the World since 1900 283 8.2 Conditions Linked to Opening and Closing Property Rights Gaps around the World since 1900 294 8.3 Case Studies 306 8.4 Conclusion 329 9 Conclusion 330 9.1 Reinterpreting Long-Term Political and Economic Development in Latin America 333 9.2 Limitations to the Property Rights Paradigm and a New Rights Agenda in Land 334 9.3 Property Rights and the Rise of Markets 337 Appendix A: Regression Tables for Chapter 4 355 Appendix B: Regression Tables for Chapter 5 366 Appendix C: Regression Tables for Chapter 7 368 References 373 Index 395 "José swung the gate open, hopped back into the bed of the truck, and tapped the window to the cab gently with the butt of his rifle. Iván cut the headlights and put the truck in gear. We inched forward along the bumpy road that carved through the broad southern Venezuelan plains, the dust rising in a thick cloud just behind us. In a low voice, I asked José: "Wouldn't it be easier to find capybara with the headlights on?" "I'll tell you tomorrow," he whispered in reply. "You'll see, on a night like tonight, the moonlight reflects off their eyes.""-- Paragraph one of introduction