Azizur Rahman Khan

Poverty and the distribution of land.

Redistributive land reforms have begun to attract the attention of scholars and policy makers once again. In this paper, we review old arguments and bring them up-to-date in the light of recent research. We begin with the case in favour of redistributive reforms focusing on fragmented factor markets and systems of labour control, of which concentration of land ownership is but one aspect. We then examine land reform in practice, focusing on distinct regional features and outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, the transition economies of the former Soviet bloc and, as examples of success, East Asia (including China and Vietnam). Next we discuss the macroeconomic context and the two-way direction of causality between a redistribution of productive assets and the overall performance of the economy. We underline the importance of weakening the system of labour control, eliminating landlord bias and correcting urban bias. Finally, we argue that a prominent feature of all successful land reforms has been a high degree of land confiscation; full compensation and various types of ‘market friendly’ land reform are unlikely to be successful.

Poverty in the third world: Ugly facts and fancy models

Abstract It is argued that the evidence from Asia indicates that despite the rise in average incomes the incidence of rural poverty has shown little tendency to diminish and in many cases the standard of living of some groups and classes, notably the landless, actually has declined. It then is suggested that the reasons for this have less to do with aggregate or sectoral rates of growth than with the interaction between the structure of the economy and four dynamic processes. Finally, the limitations of conventional theories and models are indicated and an alternative framework of analysis is proposed.

The Comilla model and the integrated rural development programme of Bangladesh: An experiment in `cooperative capitalism'

The effort is made in this discussion to examine the contribution of the Comilla Cooperative system in solving the problems of underdevelopment and poverty in rural Bangladesh. In that the system has been tried most intensively and over a long period in the Comilla Kotwali Thana the primary focus is on an evaluation of the performance of that program. The basic organization of the Comilla cooperatives consists of a 2-tier structure - the village based primary cooperative termed the KSS the Agricultural Cooperative Association and their federation at the thana level termed the ACF Agricultural Cooperatives Federation. The vision of those who conceived and launched the Comilla experiment was 1 of protecting and developing the small and middle peasants who owned and rented in land. There was a significant gain in production but the gain seems to have little to do with the cooperative organization itself. The credit is more appropriately due to the concentration of resources made available by the government for the cooperative members actually appeared to lag behind the non-members in terms of growth in production per acre. The management of the cooperative was dominated by relatively large farmers and the benefits were largely concentrated in the hands of the rich and the powerful. Along with their sacrifice of equity the cooperatives failed to distribute subsidized resources efficiently. The whole cooperative exercise provides a lesson in the futility of cooperation in a situation of inequality.

Collective Agriculture in Soviet Central Asia

The territory that now forms the Soviet Central Asian economic region was annexed by Tsarist Russia in the second half of the nineteenth century. The present national boundaries were drawn in the decade following the Soviet Revolution. Although the criteria of delimitation were linguistic and cultural each of the republics is in reality today a multinational entity. The region consists of four republics: Uzbekistan (14.5 million people in 1977), Tajikistan (3.6 million), Kirghizia (3.4 million) and Turkmenistan (2.7 million). Together the four republics have a territory of 1.3 million square kilometres. The average population density of 19 per square kilometre is misleading. Vast parts of the region consist of desert or mountains where very few people live. In the fertile river basin the density of population frequently exceeds 200 per square kilometre.

Taxation, procurement and collective incentives in Chinese agriculture

Abstract Contrary to the view held by many, the organization of agriculture in China has been based on a carefully devised system of incentives which rewards efficiency even at the cost of permitting some degree of inequality. This paper looks at the way taxation and procurement policies in China have been designed to provide such incentive to the collective units in Chinese agriculture. The overall result is a rate of ‘marginal tax’ which is much lower than the rate of ‘average tax’ that is levied both directly and implicitly through procurement. Since liberation there has been a steady reduction in the rate of extraction of resources out of agriculture.

A Note on the Degree of Dependence on Foreign Assistance

An analysis of Pakistan’s growth would be incomplete without some discussion of the role of foreign capital. Pakistan has been the recipient of a large amount of foreign assistance and it has often been asserted that this was the most significant cause of the rapid growth achieved during the last decade. Professor Mason, for example, claims that the increased inflow of foreign aid per capita from Rs. 10·8 in 1960/1 to Rs. 25·8 in 1964/5 is responsible for much of Pakistan’s success in the 1960s.1 Indeed, the flow of foreign aid has been large by most standards and has increased over time. While capital inflow was 31 per cent of domestic investment in 1959/60, the proportion rose to the level indicated by the following figures in more recent years:2 n n nYear n nForeign Assistance (Rs. million) n nDomestic Investment (Rs. million) n nForeign Assistance (as % of investment) n n n1964/5 n n3,163 n n8,066 n n39 n n n1965/6 n n2,778 n n7,078 n n39 n n n1966/7 n n3,242 n n8,517 n n38 n n n1967/8 n n3,491 n n9,935 n n35 n n n1964/5–67/8 n n12,674 n n33,596 n n38