Land degradation and property regimes

This paper addresses the relationship between property regimes and land degradation outcomes, in the context of peasant agriculture. We consider explicitly whether private property provides for superior soil resource conservation, as compared to common property and open access. To assess this we implement optimization algorithms on a supercomputer to address resource decision-making of individual households. We find that conditions exist under which private property does not lead to the best environmental outcome. Access to farming technology and off-farm employment opportunities are key factors in this result.