The Effects of Land Redistribution: Evidence from the FrenchRevolution

This study exploits the confiscation and auctioning off of Catholic Churchproperty that occurred during the French Revolution to assess the role played bytransaction costs in delaying the reallocation of property rights in theaftermath of fundamental institutional reform. French districts with a greaterproportion of land redistributed during the Revolution experienced higher levelsof agricultural productivity in 1841 and 1852, more investment in irrigation,and more efficient land use. We trace these increases in productivity to anincrease in land inequality associated with the Revolution-era auction process.We also show how the benefits associated with the head start given to districtswith more church land initially, and thus greater land redistribution by auctionduring the Revolution, dissipated over the course of the 19th century as otherdistricts gradually overcame the transaction costs associated with reallocatingfeudal system property rights.