(DP 1990-01) The Political Contest for Land Reform in a Developing Country

Abstract

This paper employs rent-seeking and public choice theory to explain the observation that land reform experience in the Philippines as well as in many other developing countries did not provide some degree of support for historical generalization as the East Asian experience. The analysis suggests that benefit-cost considerations on investments in political influence by proponents and opponents of land reform, affected the level of land transfer in these countries.