Fallow Lengths and the Structure of Property Rights

Abstract

We study a fundamental institution in many societies: the structure of property rights over land. Across societies, communal land rights have been more common than private land rights. We test the hypothesis that longer fallow requirements – the time needed to leave land uncultivated to restore fertility based on ecological features of the soil and climate – led to a higher prevalence of communal property rights. Longer fallow requirements generate higher protection costs and therefore make communal rights more beneficial. We construct an ecological measure of the optimal fallow length for the most suitable staple crop across grid cells globally based on soil type, temperature, and climate. We find that places where land needs to be fallowed for longer periods are more likely to have communal property rights both historically and presently. We then examine the implications for efforts to title land. We find that World Bank land administration interventions are less effective in places with longer fallow requirements, suggesting a mismatch between development policy and underlying institutions. Our results provide insight into the origins of property rights structures and how communal property rights interact with development policies.