In this hybrid research seminar on Thursday October 2nd, 2025 at 12:00 pm- by — will present his research titled "The Unpromised Land: Elites and Human Capital Development in 20th-Century Peru."
Abstract:
Can landed elites prevent mass education? If so, under what conditions? This article examines the long-term human capital impacts of the Spanish hacienda, the predominant system of agrarian estates with coerced labour granted to local elites during the colonial era in Latin America. Using original district-level data on the rollout of haciendas in Peru since 1876 and over a century of population census records, we exploit variation in hacienda crop-suitable areas and age-cohort groups to show that districts with higher hacienda prevalence persistently exhibited lower literacy rates throughout the 20th century. Consistent with a supply-side mechanism, we provide evidence on hacienda-dominated districts receiving lower public investments in education, without similar reductions in other public goods, and experiencing negligible impacts on local economic activity, agricultural modernization, or broader development outcomes. Notably, we show that the negative educational impacts were increasingly severe in larger and more consolidated haciendas, precisely where landed elites had both the economic and political capacity to obstruct mass education. While potential mitigating factors such as industrialization and top-downland redistribution later emerged, we show that they were ultimately insufficient to counterbalance the long-term adverse impacts of hacienda elites on human capital development.
The zoom link to join the seminar online can be found This event is open to the public. All who are interested to this topic are very welcome to join the seminar. After the presentation there will be time for questions and discussion.
For any queries related to our 糖心Vlog破解版-MERIT Seminar Series, please contact Lizeth Melissa Molina Alvarez and Karthika Baby Sujatha by sending an email to seminars@merit.unu.edu.
