The Effects of Land Redistribution on Agricultural Development: 

Evidence from Colonial and South Korea

Myung Soo Cha(School of Economics and Finance, Yeungnam University)

Abstract

Applying difference-in-differences method to a county-level panel dataset comprising colonial and South Korea, this study finds that the postcolonial land redistribution lowered the level of total factor productivity by disrupting the efficient allocation of farmland across cultivators varying in skill. The equality shock abolished credit arrangement between tenants and landlords, tightening financial constraints for the post-1945 farmers, which reduced the use of chemical fertilizer and draught animals. Lastly, the disappearance of sharecropping contract increased the use of organic fertilizers indicating the rise in work intensity due to the removal of Marshallian inefficiency.

* 이번 워킹페이퍼는 2020년에 발간된 WP2020-03("The Productivity Effect of the Land Reform in South Korea: A Difference-in-Differences Approach")의 수정본이며, 오는 10월 29일에 개최되는 전국역사학대회 경제사 분과에서 발표될 예정입니다.