Property, People, and Progress along Frontiers: How Land Policy Affects Selection and Outcomes

本项目将构建并使用大量历史数据来研究土地分配政策如何影响人和地方的经济成果。这项研究将研究获得土地所有权的两种主要途径——美国的宅基地和现金购买——如何影响后来的土地使用和其他结果。该项目将记录在每个备选方案下寻求土地的人以及他们来自哪里。此外，它通过比较成功的自耕农的后代和40%尝试但没有获得所有权的自耕农的后代，探讨了获得免费土地是如何影响向上流动的。这项研究弥合了安全产权的理论概念与实现它们的实际过程之间的差距。在气候变化和人口增长的背景下，世界各地的土地改革进程以及处女地吸引新定居点的前景使得这些见解至关重要。研究结果将有助于指导土地分配政策，并在此过程中提高经济效益。这项研究的结果将确立美国在土地分配理论和政策方面的全球领先地位。本研究将评估所有权分配的过程，包括它如何影响谁寻求什么土地，以及它对人和地方的经济结果的影响。这些努力的核心是数据匹配技术的进步和实施，将大量手写的土地条目记录、数字化的土地专利和来自联邦十年一次的人口普查等来源的个人记录联系起来。该项目将利用这些数据和计量经济学技术，对土地所有权如何(1)通过改变不同类型的个人要求某些类型土地的动机来影响移民，(2)促进个人和家庭的收入向上流动，以及(3)影响劳动力和资本的空间分布以及随后的区域经济增长模式提供新的见解。该项目还将研究土地分配政策如何影响个人行为者和随后的区域的财富分配。这个项目将增进对产权分配过程如何影响谁获得土地权利和经济发展的理解。研究结果将有助于指导土地分配政策，并在此过程中提高经济效益。这项研究的结果将确立美国在土地分配理论和政策方面的全球领先地位。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will construct and use a large historical data to study how land allocation policy affects economic outcomes for people and places. The research will study how two dominant paths to land title – homesteading and cash purchase in the US affected land use and other outcomes later on. This project will document who sought land under each alternative and where they came from. In addition, it explores how securing free land affected upward mobility by comparing descendants of successful homesteaders to those of the forty percent of homesteaders that tried but did not secure title. This research bridges the gap between theoretical notions of secure property rights and the actual process by which they are attained. Land reform processes throughout the world combined with the prospect of virgin lands attracting new settlement amid climate change and population growth make these insights critically important. The results of this research will help to guide land allocation policies and in the process improve economic performance. The results of this research will establish the U.S. as the global leader in land allocation theory and policy.This research will evaluate the process of title allocation, inclusive of how it influences who seeks what land, and its effects on economic outcomes for people and places. Central to these efforts is the advancement and implementation of data matching techniques to link volumes of handwritten land entry records, digitized land patents, and individual records from sources such as the federal decennial censuses. The project will draw on this data and econometric techniques to provide new insights into how land titling (1) affects migration by altering incentives for diverse types of individuals to claim certain types of land, (2) contributes to upward income mobility for individuals and families, and (3) affects the spatial distribution of labor and capital and subsequent pattern of regional economic growth. The project will also study how land allocation policy influences the distribution of wealth both for individual actors and subsequently the region. This project will enhance understanding of how the process of title allocation affects who attains land rights and economic development. The results of this research will help to guide land allocation policies and in the process improve economic performance. The results of this research will establish the U.S. as the global leader in land allocation theory and policy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.