Events

The Impact of the 1901 Land Title Deed Act on Bangkok’s Urban Land Market

King Chulalongkorn adopted a Western land code in 1901 as a part of a defensive strategy against Western colonial ambitions in Siam. The enactment of the 1901 Land Title Deed Act converted traditional secure usufruct rights to fully transferable private property rights with absolute exclusion rights. Using plot-level data collected from 9,840 Bangkok orchard land deeds issued in the 1880s, Jessica Vechbanyongratana of Chulalongkorn University analyzes the incidence of land transfers after the enactment of the 1901 land law. Her analysis shows that the shift from secure usufruct to transferable private property rights is associated with increased land transfers in Bangkok after 1901. Furthermore, the lifting of agricultural land use restrictions resulted in relatively more property transactions in non-agricultural areas and next to the river and roads, which were important for commerce and trade but not agriculture. During this Quantitative History Webinar, Jessica will explain how the adoption of a Western land code, driven by political reasons, had the unintended consequence of supporting the growth of new economic activities outside agriculture in Bangkok.

Discussant: Denggao Long (Professor of Economics, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University)

Live on Zoom on Thursday, February 22, 2024
16:00 Hong Kong/Beijing/Singapore
08:00 London | 15:00 Bangkok | 17:00 Tokyo | 19:00 Sydney

The Quantitative History (QH) Webinar Series aims to provide researchers, teachers, and students with an online intellectual platform to keep up to date with the latest research in the field, promoting the dissemination of research findings and interdisciplinary use of quantitative methods in historical research. The QH Webinar Series, now entering its fourth year, is co-organized by Centre for Quantitative History at the HKU Business School and International Society for Quantitative History in partnership with Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences. The Series is now substantially supported by the Areas of Excellence (AoE) Scheme from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. [AoE/B-704/22-R]). 量化歷史網上講座系列由香港大學陳志武和馬馳騁教授聯合發起，旨在介紹前沿量化歷史研究成果、促進同仁交流，推廣量化方法在歷史研究中的應用。本系列講座由香港大學經管學院量化歷史研究中心和國際量化歷史學會承辦，及香港人文社會研究所全力支持。從2023年開始，系列得到中國香港特別行政區研究資助局卓越學科領域計劃的重要資助 (項目編號[AoE/B-704/22-R])。

Conveners:
Zhiwu Chen
Chicheng Ma