The Institutional Legacy of the Mexican Rancho System in California
研究了加州继承的墨西哥土地制度对早期农业发展的影响，利用自然实验发现牧场制度导致土地价值大幅损失，原因在于美国矩形测量体系下的灌溉发展。
We analyze the effect of the inherited Mexican property institutions in California on the state’s early agricultural development, focusing on land demarcation and the implied water rights. In California large tracts of land, called ranchos, granted during Spanish and Mexican rule of California persisted once the region became part of the United States and became intertwined with the American system of rectangular demarcation. We exploit this natural experiment in property institutions and use farm- and county-level data to examine the effects of the rancho system on farms’ shapes and values. We document large losses in land values from the rancho system and provide evidence that the mechanism driving these differences in farms’ values is the development of irrigation within the American rectangular survey system.