| Summary: | <p>This thesis analyses the interaction between development and integration into global markets. </p> <p>Chapter 1 studies whether international crop prices affect formal land tenure in Uganda. Higher agricultural prices induce farmers to increase their share of titled land. This effect results from the combination of an income effect, an incentive effect, and the interaction between social status and social capital. Prices have a positive impact on agricultural income and sales revenues. The effect of prices on land tenure is stronger when farmers have undertaken investment on the land, for the prices of export crops, and when farmers fear expropriation and land grabbing. In areas with lower social capital, land insecurity is higher. Elite groups in low-social-capital communities respond more to an increase in prices, whereas disadvantaged groups are better-off where social capital is higher.</p> <p>Chapter 2 evaluates the adjustment cost to the DR-CAFTA free trade agreement in Honduras. The agreement produces a reduction in household income in Honduran regions more intensely exposed to trade. The result is driven by local labour market effects: workers are not able to relocate across locations or sectors, and a generalised reduction in wages pushes many out of the labour force or into less lucrative, informal-sector activities.</p> <p>Chapter 3 investigates the relationship between migrant remittances and financial development across Italian provinces in the late Nineteenth-early Twentieth centuries. Remittances have a positive impact on the growth of bank deposits. Higher remittances are associated with increased GDP and a higher number of active bank branches, and therefore contribute to enhancing financial inclusion.</p> <p>Chapter 4 is an empirical application of theoretical models of trade with product variety and firm heterogeneity, and measures the gains from trade predicted by these models for Italy between 1870 and 2000. The analysis accounts for gains from variety, firm selection effects, and technology spillovers, and allows the trade elasticity to vary over time, reflecting the main economic and political phases of Italian history.</p>
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