Land Use and the Incidence of Forced Displacement

In the context of the Colombian internal conflict, rural communities engaged in subsistence agriculture and traditional modes of production, most of which are not highly profitable, are significantly affected by displacement. We explain this finding by the use of a game-theoretical model where the government obtains income and provides security for regions while the armed group extorts productive agriculture and chooses the percentage of subsistence farmers to force out from their lands. By displacing population, the armed group reallocates land from subsistence to modern agriculture, increasing the potential gains from extortion. We find that if land productivity is sufficiently high and the proportion of land devoted to modern productive agriculture is small, the government provides low security, and displacement occurs. The government only prevents displacement if the income obtained from the region exceeds the cost of security provision which occurs when the proportion of land devoted to subsistence agriculture is sufficiently small. Predictions from the theoretical model are tested using a panel data set of Colombian municipalities for 2003–2017. Results from the fixed-effects panel estimations indicate that municipalities with collective titles exhibit higher IDPs expulsion rates, in accordance with the theory. Findings from the model could also shed light on other countries where forced displacement is aimed at land reallocation that allows for a more productive use of this resource.