RT Generic
T1 Land reform and rural conflict: evidence from 1930s Spain
A1 Basco Mascaro, Sergi
A1 Domènech Feliu, Jordi
A1 Maravall Buckwalter, Laura
A2 Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Historia Económica e Instituciones, 
AB We use a novel high-frequency, municipality-level dataset to examine the impact of land reform on rural conflict in 1930s Spain, a classical example of property rights reform in a developing economy. We distinguish between types of implementation and consider five types of conflicts: land invasions, peasant strikes, clashes, petty theft and attacks on land owner assets. By performing a differences-indifferences regression analysis, we document three main results. First, overall, land reform only increased the number of reported petty thefts, lasting around two years, followed by a reversion to pre-reform levels. Second, the effects of land reform depend on its implementation. A technical implementation was conducive, if anything, to fewer conflicts (clashes and attacks). In contrast, a more political implementation (which gave, on average, less land per peasant) increased reported petty theft sand, to a lower extent, attacks on owners'assets. Third, we provide suggestive evidence that the fall in income of settlers (the, a priori, benefficiaries) explains the increase in social conflict. Our results highlight the importance of the design and implementation of social policies, especially in the context of an agrarian economy.
SN 2341-2542
YR 2021
FD 2021-04-15
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10016/32377
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10016/32377
LA eng
NO Basco acknowledges fi nancial support from Catalan Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (2017SGR1301) and Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (PID2019-104723RB-I00). Domenech acknowledges fi nancial support from Spain's Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (PID2019-104869GB-100).
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RD 1 sept. 2024