Small Farms, Large Transaction Costs: Haiti’s Missing Sugar
研究了20世纪初加勒比地区糖业繁荣时，海地因历史产权制度导致土地交易成本过高，未能恢复甘蔗生产，反而土地闲置、工人外流。
In the eighteenth century, Haiti was the world’s leading sugar producer, but when cane surged in the Caribbean in the early twentieth century, Haiti produced none. Instead, the land sat idle while workers emigrated to work on sugar plantations. I examine the hypothesis that historical property rights institutions created high transaction costs for converting land to cane production. I collect new data on land-use from 1928–1950 and a proxy for transaction costs. The evidence suggests transaction costs impeded the land market from responding to the sugar boom.