Restoring Property rights: The Effects of Land Restitution on access to credit

We estimate the causal effect of the Law mandating land restitution to victims of forced displacement in Colombia. We use the timing of the restitution as the source of identification in an event study approach. Farmers typically rely on small to medium-sized loans with limited or no collateral to finance their investments, thus we employ microcredit as our main outcome variable. We analyze administrative data from the program, along with data from the census of credit transactions. Our findings reveal a substantial increase in access to credit, both in terms of the likelihood of signing a loan (extensive margin) and the loan amounts (intensive margin). These effects are most pronounced two years after land restitution, coinciding with the moment individuals gain full property rights. By delving into the specific details of these credit transactions, we ascertain that the credits obtained are primarily directed towards agricultural investments. This suggests that the increased access to credit is likely being used to finance material investments in the restored land parcels.

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