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Title: Land Quality, Land Rights, and Indigenous Poverty
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2018
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Abstract: Economic reasoning suggests that agricultural land endowments should contribute positively to long-run economic growth, but in countries colonized by European powers this has not always been the case. Productive land attracted colonization, which disrupted indigenous institutions in ways that can stunt development. American Indian reservations provide a powerful example. Where land quality was high, the federal government more aggressively facilitated land titling and non-Indian settlement through the Allotment Act over 1887 to 1934. As a result, historic land quality does not correlate positively with modern per capita income on some reservations. Instead, our data reveal a U-shape between American Indian income per capita (over 1970 to 2010) and the share of prime agricultural land (compared to a positive relationship across US counties) that has become more pronounced over time. We provide evidence that the downward slope of the U is due to ownership fractionation resulting from incomplete land privatization under the Allotment Act that disproportionately affected reservations with mid-quality land and now requires colonial-like federal administration of land rights. After controlling for fractionation, the effects of prime land on reservation incomes is positive, implying that poor institutions and poor land have both contributed to poverty.
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Authors: Leonard, Bryan; Parker, Dominic; Anderson, Terry
Publisher: Arizona State University
Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS
Topics: Land Use/Urban Organization, Natural Resource Management, Other
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