Ejido reforms in Mexico: conceptual issues and potential outcomes

The evolving privatization of the ejido system in Mexico represents a challenge to standard economic models of common property regimes. These models tend to emphasize human interrelations while discounting the ecological conditions which form the environment for human interactions. A risk-spreading, safety-first model capturing interrelationships between nature and humans is developed to analyze the potential implications of Mexico's privatization efforts. Recognizing that the majority of ejido lands are communal, not parcelized, located primarily in arid areas, the model supports the prediction that privatization will occur and be most successful on irrigated, ejido lands with modern social and economic infrastructure. -Authors