Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/326964 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
GLO Discussion Paper No. 1672
Publisher: 
Global Labor Organization (GLO), Essen
Abstract: 
Prior to the widespread adoption of barbed wire in the late 19th century, the absence of cheap fencing materials in the western United States led to violent conflict in the presence of competing claims over land-use. Using data from the full count U.S. Censuses of Mortality for the years 1850 to 1880, I demonstrate that an increase in the cost of property rights enforcement- captured by an increase in fencing costs per-acre-results in an increase in violent mortality. The effect of fence prices on violent mortality is exacerbated in counties with a greater degree of agricultural land-use polarization. The main findings are supported by an instrumental variables specification using the county woodland area share-a measure of the local scarcity of natural fencing materials, and a placebo specification demonstrating that fence prices have no effect on infectious disease mortality.
Subjects: 
Property Rights
the West
Barbed Wire
Violent Conflict
JEL: 
N41
D23
K42
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.