Rural poverty and access to land in developing countries: theory and evidence from Guatemala

The lack of consensus on the social impacts of access to land ownership continues to generate heated political and academic debates. This article elaborates a theoretical argument about opportunity costs and asset accumulation dynamics, factors that affect the potential benefits of gaining access to or increasing the size of agricultural land holdings in developing countries. It tests the theory using household data from Guatemala, and concludes that effective rural income generation policies should be flexible, where access to land can be the subject of support, and where business-related incentives are given to beneficiaries.