"Moving" land across borders: spatial shifts in land demand and immiserizing effects

Abstract

The rush for land acquisition has attracted considerable attention from the scientific community, although actual research on the topic remains thin. This paper attempts to break new ground by studying the potential effects of land deals in the context of a small open economy subject to exogenous shocks. In particular, it makes three main arguments: first, an increase in world prices of the agro-business sector causes skewed effects in the subsistence sector; second, an attractive premium offered by hosts to lure investors may have immiserizing effects; and third, technological efforts will have favorable effects if host countries adopt policies to revitalize agriculture.