The Sonoran land grab: Native displacement and elite wealth extraction in the nineteenth century Mexico

In this article, we investigate how wealth evolved across social classes following land-encroachment policies implemented in Sonora in the late nineteenth century. Using a database of will inventories from Sonora, we find that the upper class saw large wealth gains following a policy shift, enabling encroachment, but not for other social groups. This indicates that access to previously indigenous land benefited only members of the elite in Sonora. We highlight the role of institutions in shaping wealth and inequality in the early periods of Latin American economic development.