Land inequality and conflict in Latin America in the twentieth century

In this paper, we study the association between land inequality and civil conflict using a panel of 18 Latin American countries spanning the twentieth century. We find a statistically significant relationship between land inequality and civil conflict onset. This finding is consistent with the ‘land maldistribution hypothesis’ and the view that inequality is important for understanding conflict in Latin America. It is also consistent with recent theories of conflict and the model of revolution applied by Acemoglu and Robinson in their work on political transitions.