Income Distribution and Labour Utilisation Under Different Agrarian Systems

The main purpose of this paper is to explore some implications for rural income distribution and labour utilisation of different institutional arrangements for land ownership and organisation of agricultural production. While the problems of poverty, income distribution and employment have been much discussed in recent years, relatively few attempts have been made to isolate the impact of institutional arrangements. For the purpose of this discussion, ‘institutional arrangements’ or ‘agrarian systems’ are defined narrowly to refer to patterns of ownership of means of production, primarily land, and of organisation of agricultural production. Before proceeding further, it is important at the outset to make explicit the scope and limitations of this paper.