Choosing Limited Property Rights: Privatizing Reforms and Collective Land Institutions in Mexico

Abstract: Why do limited property rights institutions persist? We examine continuity and change in Mexico’s ejidal land tenure system, a form of social property in which holders receive limited usufruct rights over individual plots and commons are collectively managed. Many scholars have argued that the ejido has hindered economic and political development through institutionalized land fragmentation and the provision of incomplete property rights. However, though the privatization of ejidal land has been legal since 1992, few ejidos have been partially or fully privatized. In fact, there are more ejidos, more ejidatarios, and more land in social property today than before the 1992 Agrarian Reform. We examine the geographic patterns and historical antecedents of today’s ejido to understand the persistence of this institution.