Land reforms in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan were the foundation of East Asia’s economic miracles. They brought political benefits, too
Michael Lipton, a British economist who died this month at the age of 86, would have grasped what was at stake in Almas’s case. Much of his life’s work was dedicated to devising laws and processes to promote “land reform”. The goal of such measures was to reduce poverty by increasing the proportion of farmland controlled by the poor. Most of Mr Lipton’s fieldwork, and the biggest successes for his approach, were in Asia.
Mr Lipton came of age as the results of radical land reforms in East Asia were becoming apparent. Before the second world war, the region was ripe for change, with large and growing rural populations and a relatively small number of landlords owning most of the cultivable land. As Joe Studwell explains in “How Asia Works”, demand for land was growing faster than supply. Instead of investing to increase yields, landlords simply let out their land at ever more crippling rents.
These reforms were the foundation of East Asia’s economic miracles. Needing to import less food, the countries could retain scarce foreign exchange—indeed, high-end vegetables were early export successes. Farm entrepreneurialism created new demand and markets, such as for light machinery. The countryside was a test-bed for future exports—Japanese cars’ reputation for reliability was partly won on bumpy country roads.
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