Inequality In Land Distribution Research Articles

Human Capital in the Regions of the Russian Empire and Inequality in Land Distribution at the Turn of the 20th Century

Human Capital in the Regions of the Russian Empire and Inequality in Land Distribution at the Turn of the 20th Century

Beyond land grabbing narratives, acknowledging patterns and regimes of land control in Senegal

Land is central to addressing global development challenges, and land governance is at the heart of paradigms of democracy, justice, sustainability, and resilience. Despite the thoroughly recognized importance of land as a basis for all human-nature relations, the land sector is challenged by mechanisms of commodification and land control. The widely recognized global land rush of the late 2000 s increased the pressure on land, spotlighting in particular the rising demand for arable lands. But despite a growing awareness, the patterns and regimes of dispossession are still subject to blind spots, due in part to a recurring focus on foreign land grabbers, a lack of transparent data on land investments, and several methodological limitations. In Sub-Saharan Africa, one of the world's most targeted areas in terms of land investments, Senegal offers an interesting case study because published data on land control has been limited to foreign land investments. In this study, conducted in partnership with the technical committee of the Senegalese Land Governance Observatory, we propose another way to look at land control in agriculture by encompassing all types of investors at a national scale and focusing on the full ensemble of control processes. In our results, we describe the dynamics of land investments through time and space and identify three different types (or clusters) of investment patterns with specificities in terms of investing stakeholders, crops, and markets. While we highlight the inequality in land distribution and control, we also stress the environmental impacts of large agricultural investments that encroach on common lands and the social consequences of restricting access and use of resources, which further exacerbates the exclusion of local communities.

Innovative and Sustainable Food Production and Food Consumption Entrepreneurship: A Conceptual Recipe for Delivering Development Success in South Africa

Innovative food production and food consumption entrepreneurship can be viewed as a recipe for delivering sustainable development goals to promote economic, human, and community growth among vulnerable and marginalised communities in South Africa (SA). This study critically analyses the trends and related issues perpetuating the development gap between privileged and marginalised communities in SA. It explores the link between innovative food production and food consumption entrepreneurship and underdevelopment based on sustainable development goals (SDGs). The study also generates a conceptual model designed to bridge the development gap between privileged and marginalised communities in SA. Philosophically, an interpretivism research paradigm based on the socialised interpretation of extant literature is pursued. Consistent with this stance, an inductive approach and qualitative methodological choices are applied using a combination of thematic analysis and grounded theory to generate research data. Grounded theory techniques determine the extent to which the literature review readings are simultaneously pursued, analysed, and conceptualised to generate the conceptual model. Research findings highlight the perpetual inequality in land distribution, economic and employability status, social mobility, gender equity, education, emancipation, empowerment, and quality of life between privileged and marginalised societies in SA. Underdevelopment issues such as poverty, unemployment, hunger, criminal activities, therefore, characterise marginalised communities and are linked to SDGs. Arguably, food production and food consumption entrepreneurship are ideally positioned to address underdevelopment by creating job opportunities, generating income, transforming the economic status, social mobility, and quality of life. Although such entrepreneurship development initiatives in SA are acknowledged, their impact remains insignificant because the interventions are traditionally prescriptive, fragmented, linear, and foreign-driven. A robust, contextualised, integrated, and transformative approach is developed based on the conceptual model designed to create a sustainable, innovative, and digital entrepreneurship development plan that will be executed to yield employment, generate income and address poverty, hunger, gender inequity. To bridge the gap between privileged and marginalised societies. The conceptual model will be used to bridge the perpetual development gap between privileged and marginalised societies. In SA is generated. Recommended future research directions include implementing, testing, and validating the model from a practical perspective through a specific project within selected marginalised communities.

Colombia’s oil palm development in times of war and ‘peace’: Myths, enablers and the disparate realities of land control

Between 1993 and 2015 the land planted to oil palm in Colombia increased fourfold, from 119,000ha to 484,000ha. This rapid growth coincided with a period of extreme armed conflict and displacement, with inequality in land distribution reaching the highest levels in Latin America (Oxfam, 2017). These occurrences spurred this inquiry into conditions on the ground in the palm growing zones and the political and economic forces promoting the crop. The theoretical underpinnings are derived from the literature on land grabbing, land control, land concentration and exclusion. Oil palm has been favoured by rural elites, conservative governments and right-wing paramilitaries in an attempted ‘modernising’ of the countryside through agro-industry. Neo-liberal ideas emphasising capital accumulation through the ‘market’ have minimised land reform efforts and impeded post-conflict land restitution. The paper is organised in three main parts. Part 1 introduces the crop and its importance, linked to oil palm's culture of continuous expansion. Relevant theoretical concepts are discussed, together with the background to land and violence in Colombia. Part 2 begins the more detailed analysis of the palm oil industry. A descriptive survey of historical beginnings, modern data availability and distribution of holdings is followed by a more nuanced analysis of industry-induced ‘myths’ and political ‘enablers’ through the Uribe years (2002–10) and the Santos era (2010–2018). In Part 3 the evidence for ‘stolen land’ is examined in representative oil palm locations. The findings are summarised in the conclusion. • Colombia's oil palm area quadrupled in a period of armed conflict and displacement. • The increase was officially attributed to state assistance and new lands from ‘alliances’. • Peasant displacement and ‘cleaning’ of titles consolidated land control. • Despite patchy evidence, case studies have supported findings of ‘stolen land’. • The rural lowlands are modernising but land access remains highly inequitable.

Geography, land inequality and regional numeracy in Europe in historical perspective

We find a relationship between geographic factors and numeracy in more than 300 regions of Europe around the year 1900. We argue that the distribution of land ownership is a plausible mechanism, given that it is related to the geographic factors under study. Consistent with theoretical studies in the Unified Growth Theory framework, we find that inequality in land distribution has a negative correlation with human capital formation as landowners did not have incentives to promote educational institutions or were not willing to pay the necessary taxes. This study explains a substantial share of the differences in development gradients between rural European regions in a historical perspective.

Current Status and Key Trends in Agricultural Land Holding and Distribution in Punjab, Pakistan: Implications for Food Security

The economy of Pakistan is mainly dependent on agriculture which is mainly owned by small farm householders. The rapidly increasing population and stagnant agricultural growth coupled with other economic issues are threatening food security and livelihood of rural population in Pakistan. The main objective of the study was to appraise the change in the agrarian structure in Punjab province and to see the current status and key trends in land holing and distribution. It is done by reviewing of the overtime structural changes in land holdings using inter-census data of 1960-2010 t enabled the present analyses to depict a clear picture of the overtime changes that had come about in the agrarian structure of Punjab. The magnitude of shifts from one period to the other was calculated with the help of Lorenz ratio and Gini coefficient. The study showed disparities in ownership and distribution of land holdings in Punjab. The findings suggested a decrease in inequality in land distribution through effective land reform and distribution. This will help to increase farm income of small-scale and subsistence farming communities to cater for the threatening issues of food insecurity.

The Great Divergence Revisited: Industrialization, Inequality and Political Conflict in the Unified Growth Model

This paper studies the impact of inequality in capital and land distribution on the pace of industrialization, thereby explaining the role of wealth inequality in the Great Divergence phenomenon. We build a two-sector unified growth model, in which the outcome of public policy contest between the supporters and opponents of modern sector development determines the pace of industrialization. The distribution of wealth affects the incentives of agents to invest in political conflict, and hence influences the probability of pro-growth policies. We show that while higher inequality in land distribution hampers modern sector development, higher inequality in capital within landless agents is growth enhancing. The strength of the latter effect increases with the amount of accumulated capital. The model also captures the hump-shaped path of conflict intensity observed throughout the industrialization phase. We present several historical narratives that support these results.

Agricultural Employment, Wages and Poverty in Developing Countries

Drawing upon panel data estimations, we have analysed the relationships among agricultural productivity, employment, technology, openness of the economy, inequality in land distribution and poverty. First, we have identified a number of important factors affecting agricultural productivity, such as agricultural R&D expenditure, irrigation, fertilizer use, agricultural tractor/machinery use, reduction in inequality of land distributions, or reduction in gender inequality. Second, while agricultural wage rate is negatively associated with agricultural productivity and food price in levels, the growth in agricultural wage rate is positively correlated with the growth in agricultural land or labour productivity as well as with the growth in food price, particularly after 2000. Contrary to the ILO’s (2012) claim that the gap has widened recently, this suggests the narrowing gap between wage and labour productivity once we focus on the conditional relationship between the two. Third, agricultural employment per hectare tends to increase agricultural productivity after taking account of the endogeneity of the former, while the growth in agricultural employment per hectare tends to increase the growth in non-agricultural employment over time with adjustment for endogeneity of the former. In this context, we have reviewed the recent literature and emphasised the importance of enhancing agricultural productivity and employment. Fourth, both agricultural growth and non-agricultural growth tend to lead to reduction in overall inequality. Finally, increase in agricultural productivity which is treated as endogenous will reduce poverty significantly through the overall economic growth. Overall, policies to increase agricultural productivity and agricultural employment are likely to increase non-agricultural growth, overall growth and reduce poverty, where guaranteeing gender inequality is likely to be one of the key factors.

Trust, religion, and cooperation in western agriculture, 1880–1930

This article explores the role of culture in encouraging the diffusion of cooperation for the production and marketing of agricultural products, an organizational innovation that can be related to technical progress in the rural sector and higher living standards for farmers. The results of the zero‐inflated negative binomial (ZINB) pooled regressions show that trust and religion were significant determinants of the diffusion of cooperatives among farmers in western countries. Results of the logit portion of these regressions suggest that the density of production was positively related to cooperation and that cooperation decreased where higher inequality in land distribution predominated.

Uma tipologia dos estabelecimentos agropecuários do Brasil a partir do censo de 2006

Baseando-se na composição da mão de obra utilizada, medida a partir do número de pessoas e do tempo de trabalho no ano, os estabelecimentos agropecuários foram agrupados em quatro categorias: assentado, exclusivamente familiar, familiar com contratado, não familiar. Os estabelecimentos de "assentados" são em quase sua totalidade estabelecimentos familiares; os "exclusivamente familiares" são estabelecimentos conduzidos pelo produtor exclusivamente com mão de obra familiar (pessoas com laço de parentesco com o produtor, sem pessoal contratado); os "familiares com contratados" utilizam pessoas da família e pessoal contratado, porém a mão de obra familiar supera a dos contratados; os estabelecimentos "não familiares" incluem os que operam somente com trabalho contratado e aqueles em que a força de trabalho contratada supera a dos membros da família do produtor. Foram analisadas as características de área, valor da produção, produtividade e fontes de receitas. Os estabelecimentos familiares são predominantes (90%) e abrigam 80% das pessoas ocupadas na agricultura, mas geram somente 50% do valor produzido. A concentração fundiária dentro das categorias familiares é tão elevada quanto nos estabelecimentos não familiares. No Brasil, apenas 16% da desigualdade da distribuição da terra se deve à desigualdade entre as categorias analisadas; os 84% restantes devem-se à desigualdade dentro dos grupos.

Factor endowment, human capital, and inequality in developing countries

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to extend a theoretical model due to Ljungqvist and data from a sample of 19 developing economies to empirically test it.Design/methodology/approachData for all variables are from the 2005 Human Development Report and the 2006 World Development Report. The author applies the least‐squares estimation technique in a multivariate linear regression.FindingsBased on data from the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme, the paper uses a sample of 19 developing economies and finds that cross‐country variations in income/consumption inequality may be explained by inequality of investment in human capital as measured by inequalities in child health as well as inequality in education and by inequality in the distribution of land as measured by the land Gini index.Practical implicationsAssuming a population consisting of skilled laborers, unskilled laborers, educators/health care personnel, and farmers, the paper shows that starting from an initial distribution of assets and in the absence of a perfect capital market along with human capital exhibiting increasing returns it is possible to have persistent inequality in the distribution of income or consumption. Regression results also are consistent with the theoretical implication of the model as the extent of inequality in land distribution and in access to education as well as inequalities in child health do linearly influence income or consumption inequality as measured by the ratio of the share of income or consumption accounted for by the richest quintile to that of the poorest quintile. As a result, if governments in developing countries aim to reduce inequality, they need to implement programs designed to reduce inequalities in child health by allowing children from the poorest of the poor to get fully immunized, which in turn would lead to a reduction in infant and child mortality and in education by providing low‐income families with means so that their children have better access to education. Government land policies, on the other hand, that succeed in reducing inequality in land distribution in developing countries, may be beneficial in terms of lessening income/expenditure inequality. Finally, while the present model does not test for the impact that improving capital markets would have, it stands to reason that improving capital markets could also have an impact on decreasing inequality.Originality/valueIn this paper the author uses a model due to Ljungqvist to show that individuals are relatively wealthy because they either own a fixed input such as land or they are able to invest in human capital, which in turn allow them to earn sufficient rent or labor income to remain wealthy. On the other hand, poor people either do not own land or are not capable of investing in human capital, and, as a result, earn low incomes and remain poor. This joint causation of factor endowment or human capital investment and income helps explain income distribution. Using data from the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank for a sample of 19 developing economies, it is found that cross‐country variations in income/consumption inequality may be explained by inequality of investment in human capital as measured by inequalities in child health as well as well as inequality in education and by inequality in the distribution of land as measured by the land Gini index. These results will help governments in developing countries identify areas that need to be improved upon in order to reduce income/consumption inequality.

Inequality of land tenure and revolutionary outcome: An economic analysis of China's land reform of 1946–1952

A paradoxical feature of China's land reform of 1946–1952 is that it was conducted far more radically in the north, where land tenure relations were far less unequal, than in the south where inequality of land tenure was distinctly more acute. That landlords could only be identified in south China was attributable to the sharply more active land rental market there, and the “single-cut” policy of defining the landlords narrowly as a rentier class. We attribute the predominance of an active land rental market in south China to three socioeconomic characteristics: 1) a sharply higher inequality in land distribution, 2) an organization of agriculture whose efficiency required the “unsupervised initiatives” of family labor, and 3) a distinctly higher proportion of “absentee landlords”. Our hypothesis of land rentals being the only variable distinguishing the landlords from the rich peasants and only in south China is strongly supported by empirical evidence.

Economic Inequality and Rule Performance in the Governance of Water Resources

This paper proposes a theoretical framework to analyze the impact of economic inequality on collective action through its effects on institutions. As suggested by the empirical research, institutions may crucially influence the success with which collective action is undertaken by shaping agents' returns from cooperation. The institutional channel is taken explicitly into account by modelling the relationship between inequality in land distribution and the performance of different water allocation rules. Our analysis offers a theoretical interpretation for the variety of findings in the case study literature. One prediction of the model is that the collective output generated by a specific rule depends on the degree of initial inequality in the economy, weighted by the strategic importance of agents' contributions to the realisation of the collective project.

A Quantitative Investigation of the Population-Land Inequality-Land Clearance Nexus

This paper provides a quantitative investigation of the population-land inequality-land clearance nexus. Drawing on the literature on farmer optimization behaviour, the study formalizes and empirically tests a model of population-induced agricultural land clearance. The model makes several assumptions about this process: (a) The rate at which agricultural land is brought into production due to rising population pressures accelerates with the level of inequality in access to land, (b) Egalitarian systems have a greater capacity to absorb rising numbers of people per unit of land area and, thus, will have lower rates of agricultural land clearance than higher ones and (c) Irrespective of its degree of egalitarianism, the capacity of any system to hold people in one place will eventually break down once a critical population threshold is reached. Due to their lower population absorptive capacity, this level will be reached sooner under unequal systems of land distribution. Thus, the model also hypothesizes that the stimulatory impact of population growth on the demand for new land will exhibit a non-linear threshold pattern. For the farmer, the decision to clear a new plot of land will reflect these population-inequality interactions: Earnings from farming in settled areas will tend to fall as population densities and inequality in access to land increase. Time series results confirm that rural population growth is a significant factor driving agricultural land clearance in many of the 59 developing countries of our sample. Results also suggest that this rate of clearance is largest in countries with highly inegalitarian patterns of distribution. In contrast, cross-sectional regression results do not suggest any direct role for land inequality in population-agricultural land use outcomes. Contrary to the model’s assumption that this relationship should follow a non-linear threshold pattern, cross-sectional results also find no evidence that the absorptive capacity of highly densely populated land systems has been reached on average. However, they do provide support for an indirect linear relationship: Population induced agricultural land clearance is significantly magnified as inequality in access to land increases. Drawing on the empirics of the growth-inequality literature, the study suggests that this magnifying role may be linked to inequality’s impact on the assets of the poor. That is, by undermining the capacity of the rural poor to make productive investments in the land base, inequality in land distribution mediates population pressures in a way that affects both the quality and quantity of assets available to the poor to raise incomes, invest in skills accumulation, and spur demand in the rural economy as a whole.

Land Ownership Structure and Literacy among Scheduled Castes in Rural India: An Exploratory Data Analysis

The review of issues that bring out the historical and regional dimensions complements the analysis on land ownership structure and literacy among Scheduled Castes (SCS) in rural India in early 1990. The various scenarios help us better understand the composite index that combines inequality in land distribution (Gini) and illiteracy. If literacy is a potent tool and an alternative to landlessness then from the correlation exercise one can infer that it has been less effective for SCs than for total population. While giving policy prescription, a little detour is inevitable, rather necessary. Given the limits to land, propagating literacy a tool with intrinsic and instrumental value and providing alternative income generating assets in the rural non-farm sector becomes essential. Till that materialises one proposes the need to work out the viability and modality of giving illiterate, landless, and assetless agricultural iabourers (females and males) property rights to water.