Priests, Property Rights and Rural Conflict in Brazil

Lee Alston (University of Colorado-Boulder)

Abstract: Previous studies have found a strong impact of property rights on land use, land values and land-specific investment; though there is a simultaneity problem. It is often the case, for example, that land claimants will invest on the land as a means to signal ownership (investment affects property rights). Another example of reverse causality is when rented land attracts invasion by landless peasants exploiting pro-squatter legislation, (contract choice affects property rights). We propose the use of the number of Catholic priests in the county as an instrument. Importantly, the Brazilian Catholic Church has historically been one of the most progressive branches. Priests provided notions of human and political rights, and organizational skills that formed the seeds for the success of the Landless Peasant Movement during the 1990s. We use a panel for the 5500 counties in Brazil in 1985 and 1996 which includes conflict, priests and land use data as well as other controlling variables, and show that the presence of priests effectively instruments for conflict (property rights). In addition our IV approach indicates that land conflicts affect land tenure.