Abstract: 

We study the political consequences of a large land reformin Italy, which transferred more than 800,000 hectares of arable land fromlarge to small owners. Using a spatial regression discontinuity design, we showthat the reform benefited the incumbent Christian Democrat party. The electoralbenefits persist for four decades, until a major crisis in the Italianpolitical system. We conjecture that the reform generated a cooperativepolitical equilibrium in which voters in treated towns supported thecandidates and the agenda of the incumbent party, and the party promoted theinterests of these towns. Analysis of fiscal transfers, public sectoremployment, and referendum voting supports this hypothesis.