Does land consolidation promote livestock production and combat rural depopulation in northern Spain?

Abstract

This paper evaluates the effect on livestock production and rural population of the land consolidation (LC) processes that occurred over recent decades in Asturias, an autonomous region located in north-west Spain. We use a novel Difference-in-Difference (DiD) model which allows for multiple LCs at different points in time and for spatial spill-overs. As many parishes have been involved in two or more LC processes, we test whether we can simplify our analysis using a specification for these parishes that accumulates the effect of consecutive, and often distant, LC processes. We find that this simplification can be implemented when we analyse the effect of the LC processes on parishes' livestock production, but not when we examine their effects on parish population. We find that parish livestock production increases on average by about 3% once we take into account spatial effects, and that LC processes have especially attenuated the decline in the number of farms in (coastal) parishes where dairy farms predominate. We do not find strong evidence regarding the effectiveness of LC processes in redressing rural depopulation, except in some of the parishes located in western Asturias.