Agricultural Modernization and Land Conflict, with Michele Rosenberg

Agricultural modernization is a critical driver of economic development. However, it can generate conflicts on previously uncontested land. This paper shows that the expansion of capital-intensive agriculture induced by market-oriented reforms and technological innovation in the mid-1990s in Brazil increased the number of land occupations by subsistence farmers and rural workers. Our identification strategy exploits local variation in the profitability of investments in soy production given by geographic characteristics and the timing of our shock in a difference-in-differences setting. We find that higher land inequality increases conflict by decreasing land access for subsistence farmers and rural workers.

Does Third-Party Policing Increase Crime? Evidence from Nuisance Ordinances

[Nada es gratis]

In the last decades, American cities have witnessed a proliferation of third-party policing, a practice that involves property owners in crime prevention and control. This study assesses the crime effects of nuisance ordinances, a third-party policing policy that mandates sanctions on landlords who permit nuisances or crimes to exist on their properties. By leveraging the staggered adoption of nuisance ordinances across Ohio’s cities from 2000 to 2014, the findings reveal that nuisance ordinances led to an 18 percent increase in burglaries and a 28 percent increase in vehicle thefts. Multiple pieces of indirect evidence suggest that these effects are driven by a higher number of homeless people who illegally pursue shelter in buildings and vehicles. These findings highlight that third-party policing may unexpectedly increase rather than reduce property crime.