Elites, land inequality, and the expansion of mass literacy. Evidence from district- and provincial-level data in Panama, 1911–1960

This paper contributes to the debate on land inequality and human capital formation by assessing Panama's case in the twentieth century. Extensive literature suggests that land inequality is associated with landed elites who hinder literacy expansion. However, this hypothesis does not apply to Panama. This finding has been possible thanks to a new and unique district- and provincial-level dataset on land inequality and educational outcomes obtained from original censuses from the 1911 to the 1960. This original dataset offers new estimates of land Gini, land Theil, illiteracy, and school attendance, revealing significant land inequality associated with landowners and, at the same time, high levels of literacy and school attendance. Furthermore, employing panel ordinary least squares, fixed effects, random effects, and instrumental variables using land quality to address endogeneity concerns demonstrates that land inequality did not negatively affect mass literacy in Panama. Panamanian elites, landed elites included, saw literacy expansion as a tool to foster growth and patriotism.