CAN LAND MARKET REFORM MITIGATE THE EXCLUSIONARY ASPECTS OF RAPID AGRO-EXPORT GROWTH

Agro-export growth has been associated with land concentration and employment instability. In the wake of ''exclusionary'' agro-export booms, land market reform has been proposed as a way to improve peasant land access through the market. Developing a model of the economic competitiveness of different classes of producers, this paper evaluates the likely effectiveness of land market reform. While the model itself gives ambiguous answers, numerical simulation identifies a large gap between market price and peasants' abilty to pay for land. Among the components of land market reform policy, progressive land taxation appears unlikely to close that competitiveness gap, while farm land mortgage banks appear more likely to mitigate exclusionary aspects of growth.