TY  - JOUR
AU  - Maurer,Noel
AU  - Iyer,Lakshmi
TI  - The Cost of Property Rights: Establishing Institutions on the Philippine Frontier Under American Rule, 1898-1918
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14298
PY  - 2008
Y2  - September 2008
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14298
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14298.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Noel Maurer
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
Tel: 617/495-6104
Fax: 617/496-5994
E-Mail: nmaurer@hbs.edu

Lakshmi Iyer
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
Tel: 617-495-6250
Fax: 617-496-5994
E-Mail: liyer@hbs.edu
AB  - We examine three reforms to property rights introduced by the United States in the Philippines in the early 20th century: the redistribution of large estates to their tenants, the creation of a system of secure land titles, and a homestead program to encourage cultivation of public lands. During the first phase of American occupation (1898-1918), we find that the progress of implementing these reforms was very slow. As a consequence, tenure insecurity increased over this period, and the distribution of farm sizes remained extremely unequal. We identify two primary causes for the slow progress of reform: first, the high cost of implementing these programs was a major factor in reducing take-up. On the other hand, the government was reluctant to evict delinquent or informal cultivators, especially on public lands. This reduced the costs of tenure insecurity. Political constraints prevented the government from subsidizing land reforms to a greater degree.
ER  -