The Ejido System and Economic Growth of the Mexican States

Building on previous work by Chiquiar (2005) we study the impact of the ejido communal property system on economic growth in the Mexican states. The average growth rate of state per capita GDP is negatively related to the share of state land in the communal ejido system during some of the sub-periods examined. The negative relation suggests that the misallocation of resources related to the limited property rights of ejidatarios has been a binding constraint on the growth of the Mexican states at times during the 1970-2012 period. We also examine the conditional convergence or divergence of the Mexican states for 2003-2012 and 2005-2012 and find that definite conclusions cannot be drawn. Whether state GDP per capita converged or diverged depends on whether the estimations start with 2003 or 2005 and, interestingly, on the specific ejido variable included in the model.