Does Market Integration Increase Rural Land Inequality? Evidence from India
Claudia Berg, Brian Blankespoor, M. Shahe Emran, Forhad Shilpi
Do rural-urban highways increase land inequality in villages? Theory suggests that, with credit market imperfections, lower trade costs can increase land inequality through increasing returns technology adoption. Using data on household land ownership in rural India, we provide the first evidence on this issue. Identification exploits the distance of a district to the Golden Quadrilateral network (inconsequential place) and the length of colonial railroad in the 1880s in a district. A 10 percent increase in market access of a district increases land Gini by 2.5 percent, share of landless households by 6.8 percent, and adoption of increasing-returns farming technology by 3.5 percent.
Event: World Bank Land Conference 2024 - Washington
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