Peruvian property titles shifted household labor toward outside work and adults
Evidence
Obtaining title to their property seemed to increase the average number of hours that members of a household worked by 17 percent. The data suggested that over time, as the effect of titling intensified, the total number of hours worked might increase by 40 percent. There was also a redistribution of labor from work within the home to employment outside and from children to adults. Property titling was associated with a 47 percent decrease in the number of hours worked inside the house and a 28 percent reduction in the use of child labor (Field 2003, 3, 37). — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1926
Categorization
- QUESTION: Why would mere legal title change labor allocation if it didn’t unlock credit? Mechanism unclear, worth chasing Field 2003.
- SHARE: A precise, counterintuitive finding for someone working on development economics and property rights.
- XREF: connects to: Peruvian property titling failed to boost credit but raised work effort — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1925; Property titling was theorized to shift child labor to adult labor within households — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1927; Peru’s housing boom stemmed from a state subsidy, not property titling — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1992 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Property titling was theorized to shift child labor to adult labor within households
#expands(0.90) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1927 - NGO and farming income explain employment differences without any property effects
#contradicts(0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1974 - Peru’s housing boom stemmed from a state subsidy, not property titling
#qualifies(0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1992 - Legal prohibition plus community normative work shifted behavior even in a non-welfare-state, diverse society
#complicates(0.72) — , The Rod and the Child, 7363