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The Costs of Equal Land Distribution: The Case of the Israeli Moshavim
Author(s) -
Berck Peter,
Levy Am
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
american journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.949
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1467-8276
pISSN - 0002-9092
DOI - 10.2307/1241544
Subject(s) - production (economics) , distribution (mathematics) , economics , inequality , sample (material) , value (mathematics) , government (linguistics) , affect (linguistics) , land use , ethnic group , time allocation , factors of production , public economics , microeconomics , statistics , mathematics , law , mathematical analysis , linguistics , chemistry , philosophy , civil engineering , management , chromatography , political science , engineering
Equal land distribution achieved by government policy may adversely affect aggregate output. Israeli moshavim (cooperative villages) operate under an equal land allocation rule. This study assesses the production and distributional consequences of three alternative hypothetical allocation rules: a free market allocation, a value‐maximizing policy of distributing land to current farmers, and a policy that maximizes value‐added without discrimination based on nativity or ethnicity. Production and supply functions are estimated using sample data on Israeli family farms. Then the four allocation rules are simulated. The output loss from distributing land equally is found to be modest compared to the income inequality generated by the other rules.