The Distribution of Land Reform Benefits in Colombia.

The article analyzes the effects of land reforms on income distribution in Colombia. Two major findings emerge from the analysis of this paper that landless workers will probably not suffer from land reform and could conceivably be made better off if the large farms which are expropriated specialize in crops with relatively low labor intensity and in addition to improving the distribution of rural incomes a full scale land reform will provide a once-and-for-all increase in the level of total output, although the size of the increment may be smaller than has been anticipated in previous studies and urban consumers are unlikely to share in this gain. The other factors responsible for widely disparate rural incomes are ultimately linked to the skewed distribution of land ownership. A socially inefficient process of large farm mechanization would not have occurred if the initial distribution of land had been more equal. Moreover, marked deficiencies in the supply of rural educational opportunities probably would have been remedied long ago if there were no large landowners residing in the cities and sending their children to urban schools.