Evolution of land distribution in West Bengal 1967-2004
Subtitle: role of land reform and demographic changes
By: Pranab Bardhan, Dilip Mookherjee, Michael Luca, Francisco Pino
Contributors: Mookherjee, Dilip, author; Luca, Michael, author; Pino, Francisco, author; Harvard Business School
Series: Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 14-066; Working paper (Harvard Business School) -- 14-066
Publisher: Harvard Business School
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 57
Description: This paper studies how land reform and population growth affect land inequality and landlessness, focusing particularly on indirect effects owing to their influence on household divisions and land market transactions. Theoretical predictions of a model of household division and land transactions are successfully tested using household panel data from West Bengal spanning 1967-2004. The tenancy reform lowered inequality through its effects on household divisions and land market transactions, but its effect was quantitatively dominated by inequality-raising effects of population growth. The land distribution program lowered landlessness but this was partly offset by targeting failures and induced increases in immigration.
Notes: "January 2014" -- Publisher's Web site.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 35-36).