INVESTIGADORES
DJENDEREDJIAN Julio Cesar
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
The Ambivalent consequences of modernization. Changes in Property Rights and Wealth distribution in Buenos Aires, 1839-1914
Autor/es:
DJENDEREDJIAN, JULIO / SANTILLI, DANIEL
Lugar:
Stellenbosch
Reunión:
Congreso; XVIth World Economic History Congress; 2012
Institución organizadora:
International Economic History Association
Resumen:
From 1839 to 1914, rural areas of Buenos Aires experienced
significant changes. They included the transformation of old rights on land, and
the settling up of new or modern property rights, granted by specific
government offices, a process which reached its peak by 1881. Through a sample
case, this paper is trying to evaluate the impact of these changes in land
prices (which in the period 1854-1881 rise at a pace often double than other
production factors), and how that rise affected wealth distribution in the
following years. The paper shows that the rise in inequality levels was a
consequence of a concentrated land pattern, which, in turn, was a result of the
previous years development of modern property rights. Despite fast rises in
land value, those new rights, in fact, consolidated a structure of land tenure
suitable for extensive cattle ranching, roughly fitting the economy of former
times. But, in the years that followed 1881, with new property rights in full
force, rural activities shifted from extensive cattle production to sheep
farming and then to cash crops, allowing significant increases in labour and
capital investment per hectare. In those years, despite net increases in the
proportion of landowners on total population, inequality did not substantially
fall, because some landholdings have not been subdivided. That situation was possibly
because high land value, already reached in 1881, allowed them to capture strong
capital investment to transform these properties to large scale agricultural
enterprises. So the settling up of modern property rights, at least to some
extent, stiffened access to land in the years 1881-1914, not allowing
substantial decreases in inequality between owners, despite efforts to facilitate
subdivision. If conclusions are not to be generalized, in any case they show a
new approach to the effects of modern property rights in a context of fast
rural growth.