Does private property undermine development? With Prof. Alisha Holland

Does property undermine development, and specifically, the construction of infrastructure? Along with co-host Aurora Echaverria, we discuss  Prof. Alisha Holland's article "Roadblocks: How Property Rights Undermine Development in Colombia".  Looking at the case of Colombia, Prof. Holland argues that strong property rights encourage opportunistic behaviors that undermine infrastructure investments, even though political economy models define property rights as essential for economic development. This is especially important given the lengths that Colombia's president-elect, Gustavo Petro, went to great lengths to promise to never expropriate. Is it time to rethink property rights, from the left as well as the right? Check it out the article: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ajps.12706 Prof. Alisha Holland is an Associate Professor in the Government Department at Harvard University studying the comparative political economy of development with a focus on urban politics, social policy, and Latin America. Aurora Echavarria is a PhD student in Urban Planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she is a graduate fellow in the Latin American Cities Initiative. Her research centers on the relation between systems of local government finances, property taxation and the dynamics of urban inequality in public good provision. Aurora's dissertation research is supported by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy's C. Lowell Harriss Dissertation Fellowship.