There is increasing evidence that, particularly after the 2007 crisis, land has become an important form of investment alternative to financial assets. The presence of large-scale land acquisitions in the Global South has important consequences on both environmental degradation and food security in the region.
There is also some evidence that wealth concentration has played an important role in the demand for risky financial assets which led to the 2007 financial crisis (e.g., see Goda & Lysandrou, 2014, "The contribution of wealth concentration to the subprime crisis". Cambridge Journal of Economics 38: 301-327).
I am interested in exploring whether, after the 2007 crisis, wealth concentration has been playing a role in the phenomenon of land grabbing in the Global South (particularly but not exclusively in Latin America).
Thank you all for your help!
Graziano
Hi Michele,
This is not exactly what you are asking for, but we recently published a paper on land grabbing in Argentina (in Spanish). As you may know there is not much published on this issue in Argentina yet.
In particular, our paper focuses on land-grabbing stratetegies carried out by capitalized farmers in areas formerly occupied by native forest and recently converted to soy and maize cultivation (i.e., what we call "the expansion of the agricultural frontier").
This is the link to the pdf: Article El acaparamiento de tierras como proceso dinámico. Las estra...
Kind regards,
Daniel
Dear Michele,
This is a very interesting question. I'm not aware of a study that links the recent increase in wealth concentration and land grabbing.
In a recent study we provide evidence for a link between inequality and the demand for houses in OECD countries (i.e. increase in house prices), but we do not neither consider land nor developing countries.
Article Absolute Income Inequality and Rising House Prices
Best,
Thomas
this one might help, i know the authors, very serious
Article Land Grabbing in Latin America and the Caribbean
I would also like you to consider and perhaps compare how Southern Black Farmers lost their land. Wealth accumulated by Government and private partnerships which largely leaves wealth, food accumulation, production and distribution to the fewer. Comparatively, similar actions were taken in the U.S. Southern States.
Take a look at this book: Saskia Sassen (2014)
Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy. Belknap Press Harvard University Press, Best
Hello,
I would suggest looking up the work that is being done by researchers at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in Sussex. I think they are quite strong on issues of land-grabbing and the developmental impact of it. Their open-docs repository should provide easy and complete access to this line of work.
Hope this is helpful.
Markus
Hi Graziano,
This is a question I'm also interested in. Here's a newspaper article (obviously not peer reviewed) that got me thinking recently: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/17/world/americas/tiaa-cref-us-investment-giant-accused-of-land-grabs-in-brazil.html
Could be interesting to look at role of pension funds in financing "land grabbing" more generally. You might also look into just about anything written by Economist Michael Hudson, if you're not already familiar with him.
Best,
Anu
Hi Graziano,
in Peru, the research has been mostly focused on the acquisition of large scale rural land by agricultural corporations and the subdivision of rural plots. You can see a publication in spanish in this link:
http://www.observatoriotierras.info/sites/default/files/Concentracion_Liberalismo_o_mercantilismo_2018.pdf
I also suggest to contact CEPES (http://www.cepes.org.pe/), which is an organization researching this topic and runs the Land Property Observatory (http://www.observatoriotierras.info/vigilancia/concentraci%C3%B3n-de-la-propiedad).
There are many big corporations involved on agro industry and urbanization at the same time, which is something curious. However, as far as I know, there is no recent research on urban land grabbing.
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