The Causal Effects of Enclosures on Production and Productivity

Abstract The enclosure reforms in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Western Europe consolidated dispersed landholdings and privatized common land in order to expand food production. However, evaluations of the effects of enclosure reforms vary, and so far, there has been little causal evidence confirming their positive economic impact. We estimate the causal effects of enclosures by applying frontier difference-indifferences and event-study methodologies to a large panel of Swedish farms from 1781 to 1865, located in an agriculturally specialized region. Our findings show that enclosures boosted land productivity by 3.4% annually in the first decade and increased overall production by 82% after 30 years. Among the mechanisms, enclosures led to increased animal production and land reclamation in the short term, while in the longer term, the enforcement of property rights became important. Our results significantly surpass prior non-causal estimates of enclosure effects, suggesting the critical role of land enclosures in production and productivity growth during early industrialization. JEL codes: Q15, Q24, N53