Land and Happiness

Bert Van Landeghem, Johan Swinnen and Liesbet Vranken ()

Eastern European Economics, 2013, vol. 51, issue 1, 61-85

Abstract: The distribution of land rights is an important economic and political issue, and it played a central role in the transition process in Europe and Asia. This paper analyzes the impact of the distribution of land on household welfare by using subjective well-being data from a rural household survey in Moldova, the poorest country in Europe. The recent land reform in Moldova provides a natural experiment on the impact of land ownership distribution on subjective well-being. We find that household land holdings have a positive effect on subjective well-being, but neighbors' average land holdings have a negative effect on subjective well-being. People, regardless of the land distribution and even given the relatively low living standards of these households, rate their welfare by looking at how much other people possess.

Date: 2013
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