Land tenure and economic development: Evidence from Vietnam (Replication data and codes)

Published: 19 June 2020| Version 1 | DOI: 10.17632/tjk2hyg6zs.1
Contributor:
Hoang-Anh Ho

Description

The relationship between private property rights and economic development has been investigated by numerous cross-country studies. Nevertheless, aggregate measures of private property rights have prevented cross-country studies in general from identifying the specific institutions governing private property rights that policy reforms should consider. The present paper investigates the impact of private property rights to land on economic development in a within-country setting, exploiting the 1993 nationwide land privatization in Vietnam. Using a random sample of more than 2000 rural communes across Vietnam, I find that the prevalence of private land tenure has a positive and significant impact on the level of economic development, as proxied by nighttime light intensity. The magnitude of the impact, however, is sensitive to both observed and unobserved confounding factors, and overall modest.

Files

Steps to reproduce

All tables and figures can be reproduced using the datasets provided and STATA. These datasets are obtained by combining the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey 2004 and various GIS data.

Categories

Agricultural Economics

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