مالکیت زمین سالارانه، کارآفرینی و توسعه اقتصادی

This paper develops a theory in which oligarchic ownership of land or other natural resources may impede entrepreneurship in the manufacturing sector and may thereby retard structural change and economic development. We show that, due to oligopsony power of owners in the agricultural labor market, higher ownership concentration depresses entrepreneurial investments by landless, credit-constrained households, whose investment possibilities depend on the income earned in the primary sector. We discuss historical evidence from Latin America, India, Taiwan and South Korea which supports our theory.

Economic development is intimately related to structural change from natural resource-intensive production like agriculture or mining to manufacturing and capital-intensive production. This process is typically driven by the emergence of a new entrepreneurial class which in oligarchic societies challenges the traditional elite of natural resource owners economically and politically. The relevant individual characteristic which enables agents to become entrepreneur is whether or not they have the means to finance the cost of setting up a firm. Under credit constraints and in the absence of bequests, this depends on the households' own income. An immediate implication is that, because every economy in an early stage of development is dominated by primary goods production, the income earned by landless workers or tenants in the primary sector is a decisive financial determinant of the possibilities to start the manufacturing activity.

While land and other natural resources are key factors in primary goods production, development and structural change are driven by capital investments into manufacturing firms. The level of such investments depends on the number of individuals who have both an economic interest in and the economic means for entrepreneurial activities. In early stages of development, characterized by a substantial size of the primary sector, the means must be earned in the primary sector. How much of the income from primary goods production is left for entrepreneurial investment depends on the rents kept by landowners. These rents depend on the ownership concentration of landholdings and on the size of the labor force supplied to the primary sector.