A.I.D. Spring Review of Land Reform: Background papersAgency for International Development, Department of State, 1970 |
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activities agrarian reform Agricultural Development agricultural production agricultural sector aid agencies airgram alternative analysis basic Bihar Bolivia capital Chile Colombia colonization cooperative farms costs countries crop CRUZEIROS economic development economists Ecuador effective efficiency employment factors family farm feudal funds GERAN Guatemala Guttman scaling improved increased production India indicated industrial inputs institutional Inter-American Development Bank investment labor Land Economics land redistribution land reform program Land Tenure Center large farms latifundia Latin America LDCs least loan mechanization ment million minifundia modern nomic organization output per acre ownership paper Paraguay parcelization percent phase Philippines policy issues political present problems projects questions relationship result REVIEW OF LAND rural areas rural poverty scale small farmers social society SPRING REVIEW structure studies Taiwan technical assistance tenant theory tion U.S. assistance UNCLASSIFIED underdeveloped United University of Wisconsin urban USAID
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Page 38 - The questions to ask about a country's development are therefore: What has been happening to poverty? What has been happening to unemployment? What has been happening to inequality? If all three of these have declined from high levels, then beyond doubt this has been a period of development for the country concerned. If one or two of these central problems have been growing worse, especially if all three have, it would be strange to call the result "development...
Page 38 - If all three of these have become less severe, then beyond doubt this has been a period of development for the country concerned. If one or two of these central problems have been growing worse, especially if all three have, it would be strange to call the result 'development', even if per capita income had soared.
Page 39 - Bruce F. Johnston and John W. Mellor, "The Role of Agriculture in Economic Development," American Economic Review 51, no.
Page 38 - Standard theory is valid as a whole for the analysis of a non-capitalist economy, ie, of the economy of a society in which part or all of the capitalist institutions are absent. A proposition of either theory may eventually be valid for a non-capitalist economy, but its validity must be established de novo in each case. . . . Even the analytical concepts developed by these theories cannot be used indiscriminately in the description of other economies. Among the few that are of general applicability...
Page 38 - First, cost-benefit analysis as generally understood is only a technique for taking decisions within a framework which has to be decided upon in advance and which involves a wide range of considerations, many of them of a political or social character.
Page 38 - In current theory, distribution of ownership or other control of resources among people is 'given* ... In terms of the dynamics of economic development, however, the real problem of distribution is: 'How does ownership or other control over resources come to be distributed in the manner it is?' . . . The question is not, for example, whether a landlord and a tenant each receives the appropriate return for the resources he controls; but rather, is it appropriate, from the standpoint of the economic...
Page 38 - ... [l8, pp. 162 and 179]. 28. "...[the] process of labor transfer is typically viewed analytically as a one-stage phenomenon, that is, a worker migrates from a low productivity rural Job directly to a higher productivity urban industrial job. The question is rarely asked whether or not the typical unskilled rural migrant can indeed find higher-paying regular urban employment. The empirical fact of widespread and chronic urban unemployment and underemployment attests to the implausibility of such...
Page 38 - ... in most of the developing countries, the large proportion in agriculture, and the continuing growth of absolute numbers dependent upon agriculture [9], it is surprising to see how little analytical attention has been given to the need for creating employment and improved income-earning opportunities in rural areas. There is a vague hope that programs designed to increase production will result in agricultural development irrespective of the short-run employment and distributional consequences...
Page 38 - To accept the distinction between 'pure' and 'applied' economics as generally valid and fundamental is not only to accept the view that 'theory' in its pure form can have an independent career but that it can be validated in some way other than by 'application.' . . . The crux of the issue is simply this: that the only alternative which we have to the validation of inquiry by problem solving is a reliance either upon self evidence of fact or principle as the foundations of knowledge — or upon revelation....
Page 38 - Yet such policies tend to widen income disparities and throw the burden of adjustment on the disadvantaged. Who join the ranks of the landless, continue to crowd into existing small farm areas, move out to rapidly shrinking frontiers, or join the underemployed in the cities.