IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jecomi/v11y2023i10p258-d1261246.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Land Reform and Its Effect on Farm Household Income Inequality: Evidence from Georgia

Author

Listed:
  • Ayal Kimhi

    (Department of Environmental Economics and Management, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Institute of Environmental Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, P.O. Box 12, Rehovot 7610000, Israel)

Abstract

This article examines the importance of landholdings in explaining income inequality among family farms in four districts in Georgia following the land reform of the 1990s. Income inequality is decomposed by sources of income and by determinants of income. The results indicate that farm income is a disequalizing source of income among family farms in these districts. In addition, a uniform increase in landholding is expected to reduce income inequality. Combining the two results, we conclude that the impact of land reform on farm household income inequality depends on the resulting distribution of landholdings. It can reduce inequality if land is distributed relatively equally, but inequality can increase if the wealthier farmers are able to gain control of more (and perhaps better) land resources. A possible implication of this result is that for land reform to be equalizing, distributing land to smallholders should be accompanied by additional policies and regulations supporting small farmers, such as land titling and registration, support for cooperation, and access to credit and other market services.

Suggested Citation

  • Ayal Kimhi, 2023. "Land Reform and Its Effect on Farm Household Income Inequality: Evidence from Georgia," Economies, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-11, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:11:y:2023:i:10:p:258-:d:1261246
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/11/10/258/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/11/10/258/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elbers, Chris & Lanjouw, Peter, 2001. "Intersectoral Transfer, Growth, and Inequality in Rural Ecuador," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 481-496, March.
    2. Cowell, Frank A & Jenkins, Stephen P, 1995. "How Much Inequality Can We Explain? A Methodology and an Application to the United States," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 105(429), pages 421-430, March.
    3. LERMAN, Zvi, 2009. "Land reform, farm structure, and agricultural performance in CIS countries," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 316-326, June.
    4. Zvi Lerman, 1999. "Land Reform and Farm Restructuring: What Has Been Accomplished to Date?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 271-275, May.
    5. Sebastian Leitner & Mario Holzner, 2008. "Economic Inequality in Central, East and Southeast Europe," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 5(1), pages 155-188.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schott, Johanna & Kalatas, Talin & Nercissians, Emilia & Barkmann, Jan & Shelia, Vakhtang, 2016. "The impact of protected areas on local livelihoods in the South Caucasus [Naturschutzgebiete und ihre Auswirkungen auf die Erwerbsquellen der lokalen Anrainerbevölkerung im Südkaukasus]," IAMO Discussion Papers 152, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO).
    2. repec:zbw:iamodp:234108 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Schott, Johanna & Kalatas, Talin & Nercissians, Emilia & Barkmann, Jan & Shelia, Vakhtang, 2016. "The impact of protected areas on local livelihoods in the South Caucasus," IAMO Discussion Papers 234108, Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO).
    4. Kimhi, Ayal, 2009. "Land Reform and Farm-Household Income Inequality: The Case of Georgia," Discussion Papers 54159, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Agricultural Economics and Management.
    5. Vesselin Mintchev & Venelin Boshnakov & Alexander Naydenov, 2010. "Sources of Income Inequality: Empirical Evidence from Bulgaria," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 4, pages 39-64.
    6. Bussolo Maurizio & de Hoyos Rafael E. & Medvedev Denis & van der Mensbrugghe Dominique, 2012. "Global Growth and Distribution: China, India, and the Emergence of a Global Middle Class," Journal of Globalization and Development, De Gruyter, vol. 2(2), pages 1-29, January.
    7. Borooah, Vani K., 2004. "Gender bias among children in India in their diet and immunisation against disease," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(9), pages 1719-1731, May.
    8. Maja Micevska & Dil Bahadur Rahut, 2008. "Rural Nonfarm Employment and Incomes in the Himalayas," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(1), pages 163-193, October.
    9. Flachaire, Emmanuel & Nunez, Olivier, 2007. "Estimation of the income distribution and detection of subpopulations: An explanatory model," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 51(7), pages 3368-3380, April.
    10. Jia, Lili, 2012. "Land fragmentation and off-farm labor supply in China," Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition Economies, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), volume 66, number 66.
    11. François Bourguignon & Francisco de Hollanda Guimarães Ferreira, 2000. "Understanding inequality in Brazil: a conceptual overview," Textos para discussão 434, Department of Economics PUC-Rio (Brazil).
    12. Lerman, Zvi, 2001. "A Decade Of Land Reform And Farm Restructuring: What Russia Can Learn From The World Experience," Discussion Papers 14985, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Agricultural Economics and Management.
    13. Carmen Diana Deere & Rosa Luz Durán & Merrilee Mardon & Tom Masterson, 2004. "Female Land Rights and Rural Household Incomes in Brazil, Paraguay and Peru," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2004-08, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    14. repec:arp:tjssrr:2019:p:1167-1180 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Katie M. Jajtner & Sophie Mitra & Christine Fountain & Austin Nichols, 2020. "Rising Income Inequality Through a Disability Lens: Trends in the United States 1981–2018," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 151(1), pages 81-114, August.
    16. Lay, Jann & M'Mukaria, George Michuki & Omar Mahmoud, Toman, 2007. "Boda-bodas rule: Non-agricultural activities and their inequality implications in Western Kenya," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Göttingen 2007 20, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    17. Petrick, Martin, 2017. "Incentive provision to farm workers in post-socialist settings: evidence from East Germany and North Kazakhstan," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 20(2), pages 239-256.
    18. Vani K. Borooah & Colin Knox, 2015. "The Economics of Schooling in a Divided Society," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-46187-2.
    19. Zelda Okatch & Abu Siddique & Anu Rammohan, 2013. "Determinants of Income Inequality in Botswana," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 13-15, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    20. Rizov, Marian, 2008. "Institutions, reform policies, and productivity growth in agriculture: Evidence from former communist countries," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 55(4), pages 307-323.
    21. Vani K. Borooah & John Mangan, 2012. "Mistaking Style for Substance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 13(3), pages 266-287, June.
    22. Buchenrieder, Gertrud & Hanf, Jon Henrich & Pieniadz, Agata, 2009. "20 years of transition in the agri-food sector," German Journal of Agricultural Economics, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, Department for Agricultural Economics, vol. 58(07), pages 1-9, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:11:y:2023:i:10:p:258-:d:1261246. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.