Alternative Approaches of Land Tenure Restructuring in Brazil : Market-Assisted Intervention (MAAR) versus Land Expropriation-Distribution (TAR)

This paper presents a summary of main results of evaluation studies of performance of Ceacute;dula da Terra (MAAR) and INCRA (TAR) Agrarian Reform Projects. Moreover, it focus on the comparison between the two governance structures regarding Williamson discussion on quot;remediablenessquot;. The paper provides an analytical characterization of the governance mechanisms of each program, with a particular focus on distinctive features regarding: (a) beneficiary selection mechanisms; (b) selection and access to key assets, in particular to land and money; (c) incentives to associative undertakings (key to overcome well-known restrictions faced by small family farmers). Our results do confirm that market-assisted approach has achieved most of its short-term goals: poor communities were able to purchase arable land at market prices with noticeable welfare gains. These findings provides a case to argue that the structures of governance of agrarian reform programs are indeed shaping distinctive organizations and incentives, which are likely to produce different long-term performances