Agrarian income distribution, land ownership systems, and economic performance: Settler economies during the first globalization

Jorge Álvarez () and Henry Willebald
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Jorge Álvarez: Programa de Historia Económica y Social, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República

No 30, Documentos de trabajo from Programa de Historia Económica, FCS, Udelar

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to explain the impact of the establishment of the system of landownership on the income distribution and economic growth of settler economies (Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and Uruguay) during the First Globalization. We consider a conceptual framework based on the New Institutional Economic Theory to describe the process of the distribution of the land property rights in historical perspective and to analyze the characteristics of the land tenure system in a comparative perspective. Our results identify two models of distribution of property rights within the “club”. One of them corresponds to Australasia and, the other, to the River Plate countries, and they represented different consequences in terms of productive expansion and inequality. The land rents absorb a much larger part of total output in River Plate than in Australasia and, as result, it represents a negative incentive to productivity growth that contributes to explain the relative failure of Argentina and Uruguay compared to Australia and New Zealand.

Keywords: Land ownership systems; functional income distribution; River Plate; Australasia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N26 N27 N36 N37 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 60 pages
Date: 2013-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-his and nep-lam
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ude:doctra:30

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