A Matter of Time: An Impact Evaluation of the Brazilian National Land Credit Program

SMC Author

Vilma Sielawa

SMC Affiliated Work

1

Status

Faculty

School

School of Economics and Business Administration

Department

Economics

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-2019

Publication / Conference / Sponsorship

Journal of Development Economics

Description/Abstract

This paper provides an impact evaluation of the Programa Nacional de Crédito Fundiário, a market assisted land reform program in Brazil. The paper uses a panel dataset and pipeline control group to evaluate the program's impact on agricultural production and earned income, using a difference-in-differences model with either municipal or individual fixed effects. The heterogeneous effect of additional years of land ownership is investigated. The findings suggest that the program increases production and earned income by about 74% and 37%, but only after four years of land ownership. The conclusions are supported by a number of robustness tests, although considerable attrition and potential bias due to unobserved variables suggests caution. The benefits of the program largely go to making debt payments. If the impact on income continues to grow, as it did in the first five years, improvements in net wealth and current welfare could both be achieved.

Scholarly

yes

Peer Reviewed

1

DOI

10.1016/j.jdeveco.2019.06.004

ISSN

0304-3878

Volume

141

Issue

102361

Disciplines

Economics

Original Citation

Helfand, Steven; Sielawa, Vilma; and Singhania, Deepak. (2019). A Matter of Time: An Impact Evaluation of the Brazilian National Land Credit Program. Journal of Development Economics, 141, 102361. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2019.06.004

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