Land reform and agricultural productivity in India: a review of the evidence

Abstract

In this paper we review as well as contribute to the empirical literature on the impact of land reform on agricultural productivity in India. We find that, overall for all states, land-reform legislation had a negative and significant effect on agricultural productivity. However, this hides considerable variation across types of land reform, as well as variation across states. Decomposing by type of land reform, the main driver for this negative effect seems to be land-ceiling legislation. In contrast, the eff…