Oded Galor, Omer Moav, and Dietrich Vollrath (2009): Inequality in Landownership, the Emergence of Human-Capital Promoting Institutions, and the Great Divergence https://delong.typepad.com/land-inequality.pdf: "Inequality in the distribution of landownership adversely affected the emergence of human-capital promoting institutions (e.g. public schooling), and thus the pace and the nature of the transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy, contributing to the emergence of the great divergence in income per capita across countries. The prediction of the theory regarding the adverse effect of the concentration of landownership on education expenditure is established empirically based on evidence from the beginning of the 20th century in the U.S...
- Land-abundant countries that were characterized by an unequal distribution of land were overtaken in the process of industrialization by land-scarce countries in which land distribution was rather equal...
- As long as landowners affect the political process and thereby the implementation of education reforms, inequality in the distribution of landownership is a hurdle for human-capital accumulation, slowing the process of industrialization and the transition to modern growth...
#noted
