Land Reform and Child Health in the Kyrgyz Republic

Can the establishment of private property rights to land improve child health and nutrition outcomes? We exploit a natural experiment in the Kyrgyz Republic following the collapse of socialism, whereby the government rapidly liquidated state and collective farms containing 75 percent of agricultural...

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Main Authors: Kosec, Katrina, Shemyakina, Olga N.
Format: Journal Article
Language:Inglés
Published: University of Chicago Press 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/137415
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author Kosec, Katrina
Shemyakina, Olga N.
author_browse Kosec, Katrina
Shemyakina, Olga N.
author_facet Kosec, Katrina
Shemyakina, Olga N.
author_sort Kosec, Katrina
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Can the establishment of private property rights to land improve child health and nutrition outcomes? We exploit a natural experiment in the Kyrgyz Republic following the collapse of socialism, whereby the government rapidly liquidated state and collective farms containing 75 percent of agricultural land and distributed it to individuals, providing 99-year transferable use rights. We use household surveys collected before, during, and after the privatization reform and spatial variation in its timing to identify its health and nutrition impacts. We find that young children aged 0-5 exposed to land privatization for longer periods of time accumulated significantly greater gains in height- and weight- for-age z-scores, both critical measures of long-term child health and nutrition. Health improvements appear to be driven by increases in consumption of home-produced food rather than increased income from sale of production, likely due to under-developed markets. We find minimal impacts on urban-dwelling children affected only indirectly by the reform.
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spelling CGSpace1374152025-12-08T10:06:44Z Land Reform and Child Health in the Kyrgyz Republic Kosec, Katrina Shemyakina, Olga N. land reform health children nutrition privatization land tenure child nutrition child health capacity development Can the establishment of private property rights to land improve child health and nutrition outcomes? We exploit a natural experiment in the Kyrgyz Republic following the collapse of socialism, whereby the government rapidly liquidated state and collective farms containing 75 percent of agricultural land and distributed it to individuals, providing 99-year transferable use rights. We use household surveys collected before, during, and after the privatization reform and spatial variation in its timing to identify its health and nutrition impacts. We find that young children aged 0-5 exposed to land privatization for longer periods of time accumulated significantly greater gains in height- and weight- for-age z-scores, both critical measures of long-term child health and nutrition. Health improvements appear to be driven by increases in consumption of home-produced food rather than increased income from sale of production, likely due to under-developed markets. We find minimal impacts on urban-dwelling children affected only indirectly by the reform. 2024-01-01 2024-01-09T16:38:05Z 2024-01-09T16:38:05Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/137415 en https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.277302 https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133567 Open Access University of Chicago Press Kosec, Katrina; and Shemyakina, Olga. 2024. Land reform and child health in the Kyrgyz Republic. Economic Development and Cultural Change 72(2). https://doi.org/10.1086/719463
spellingShingle land reform
health
children
nutrition
privatization
land tenure
child nutrition
child health
capacity development
Kosec, Katrina
Shemyakina, Olga N.
Land Reform and Child Health in the Kyrgyz Republic
title Land Reform and Child Health in the Kyrgyz Republic
title_full Land Reform and Child Health in the Kyrgyz Republic
title_fullStr Land Reform and Child Health in the Kyrgyz Republic
title_full_unstemmed Land Reform and Child Health in the Kyrgyz Republic
title_short Land Reform and Child Health in the Kyrgyz Republic
title_sort land reform and child health in the kyrgyz republic
topic land reform
health
children
nutrition
privatization
land tenure
child nutrition
child health
capacity development
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/137415
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