Keynote speaker 簡介 : Professor Bharadwaj received his Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University in 2009. He is currently a Professor of Economics at University of California, San Diego. His research interests are in development and labor economics.
演講摘要 : Using the universe of land records from a large state in India, we document three empirical facts on rural land holding inequality at the village level: 1) inequality is higher close to urban areas and decreases with distance, 2) this is due to fewer medium-sized farms (i.e. more small and large farms near urban areas), and 3) the distance to urban area-land holding inequality relationship depends on the size of the urban area - larger the urban area, greater the inequality close to such towns. A simple model where individual farmers face financial frictions, a U-shaped agriculture production function linking land size and farm productivity, and a significant urban opportunity cost of farm production, explain these patterns. While medium-sized farmers exit agriculture and large farmers consolidate, financial and land market frictions are key factors behind the preponderance of small farms even near towns.
Working paper 演講者簡介 : Professor Song received his Ph.D. in Economics from Sun Yat-sen University in 2017. He is currently an Assistant Professor at National University of Singapore. His research interests are Environmental Economics, Labor Economics, and Development Economics.
