RT Generic
T1 The roots of land inequality in Spain
A1 Beltrán Tapia, Francisco J.
A1 Díez Minguela, Alfonso
A1 Martinez-Galarraga, Julio
A1 Tirado-Fabregat, Daniel A.
A2 Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Historia Económica e Instituciones, 
AB There is a high degree of inequality in land access across Spain. In the South, and in contrast to other areas of the Iberian Peninsula, economic and political power there has traditionally been highly concentrated in the hands of large landowners. Indeed, an unequal land ownership structure has beenlinked to social conflict, the presence of revolutionary ideas and a desire for agrarian reform. But what are the origins of such inequality? In this paper we quantitatively examine whether geographyand/or history can explain the regional differences in land access in Spain. While marked regionaldifferences in climate, topography and location would have determined farm size, the timing of theReconquest, the expansion of the Christian kingdoms across the Iberian Peninsula between the 9thand the 15th centuries at the expense of the Moors, influenced the type of institutions that were setup in each region and, in turn, the way land was appropriated and distributed among the Christian settlers. To analyse the effect of these two factors, we rely on the number of farm labourers for all 471 Spanish districts (partidos judiciales) using the information contained in the 1860 PopulationCensus. In line with various classic works, our results show that although geographic factors did play a role, the institutional setting that arose from the Reconquest is key in explaining the unequaldistribution of land in Spain, particularly in the former territories of the Kingdom of Castile.
SN 2341-2542
YR 2021
FD 2021-01-19
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10016/31728
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10016/31728
LA eng
DS e-Archivo
RD 27 jul. 2024