Property Rights, Land Prices, and Investment: A Study of the Taiwanese Land Registration System

To evade land taxes, most land in Taiwan during the Ching Dynasty (1662-1895) was not registered. When the Japanese started to colonize Taiwan at the turn of the 20th century, a thorough land survey was made, and all surveyed land became registered. This paper studies how this institutional change affected land values and farmers'; investment behavior. We find that land prices increased significantly after property rights became formally defined. Moreover, farmers became more willing to apply green fertilizers and to grow crops that took a long time to produce, such as tangerines.