Pavel Bacherikov
[ Curriculum Vitae ][ 𝕏 ][
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I am a PhD candidate at UC Berkeley, in the Business and Public Policy group at the Haas School of Business.
My research spans political economy, economic history, development and organizational economics. I am on the 2024–25 job market.
Job Market Paper
"Nomadic Pastoralism, Colonization and Conflict in Central Asia"[ Draft_JMP ]
Abstract
This paper studies how a sharp exogenous increase in land pressure resulting from massive land expropriations and in-migrations of peasant-settlers organized by the Russian colonial authorities in the late 19th—early 20th century affected social structures and economic activities of indigenous nomadic pastoralists in Central Asia. I assemble a novel household-level dataset constructed from two waves of Russian colonial censuses of nomadic population in 1896-1901 and 1908-1913 combined with hand-collected data from archival plot-level annual land expropriation reports that, together with landuse-based expropriation rule, allow me to use fuzzy regression discontinuity design to show that those nomadic households that experienced expropriations between ca. 1897 and ca. 1908 were more likely to partially sedentarize and intensify the use of the most fertile lands they were left with. Within extended households and beyond, an increase in land pressure facilitated the development of more individualized ownership and use rights for land, as well as gave rise to contractual labor market and rental market for land. Such a shift from pastoralism to semi-sedentary mode of production rapidly reduced the importance of top-level clan and tribe institutions traditionally regulating the use of common pastures. Instead, lower level sub-clan self-identification became more salient, households started to invest more in agricultural tools and construction of permanent buildings.
Working Papers
"The Impact of Feudalism on Long-Run Development in Russia"[ Draft ]
Abstract
Feudalism was the dominant system of land ownership throughout medieval Europe, yet little causal evidence of its effect on agricultural productivity, labor markets, and welfare exists. This paper attempts to fill this gap by studying one of the largest late medieval land reforms, the feudal pomestie reform in Russia. In 1478, the Grand Prince of Moscow Ivan III annexed the Republic of Novgorod. By ca. 1488, he expropriated most of the landed properties there. More than half of them were eventually granted to several thousand Muscovite military class people as fiefs. Using data from 1478–1500 tax cadasters the paper shows that, compared to estates that remained under status quo (allodial or freehold tenure), properties that were feudalized by 1490 and granted to new proprietors experienced a sharp decline in levels of grain productivity and total grain yield by 1500. The study also demonstrates that feudalization caused outmigration of tenant households and workers from affected estates, and that feudalized estates generated lower per capita incomes by 1576/77, had higher incidence of sharecropping and lower levels of commercialized handicrafts by 1790.
Works in Progress
"The Dominion Lands Act of 1872 and Long-Term Development of Canadian Prairies"Abstract
This study examines the long-run effects of the 1872 Canadian Dominion Lands Act using a spatial regression discontinuity design and an instrumental variables strategy that exploit quasi-random variation in initial checkerboard land allocations scheme stemming from the Dominion Land Survey. Using multiple plot-level data sources, the paper documents who acquired land through homesteading, direct purchase, military warrants, railroad grants, preemption, and resale, as well as the types of land chosen and farming practices. The results show that areas with greater historical exposure to homesteading are poorer and more rural today. This effect is not solely driven by urbanization differences: even cities in historically homesteading areas exhibit lower development levels and reduced non-agricultural productivity. In contrast, areas initially allocated to railroads have higher present-day land values, greater fixed capital investment, and they ended up transitioning out of agriculture at a higher speed—possibly because larger land concentration facilitated industrial investment. These findings suggest that extensive homesteading constrained the growth of non-agricultural sectors and limited the benefits of agglomeration.
Abstract
This paper examines the impact of the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of 1934, also known as the Wheeler-Howard Act, on productivity and quality of governance on American Indian reservations. The IRA restored over two million acres of unallotted land, held in trust by the U.S. government by 1934, to tribal communal ownership, significantly reducing land checkerboarding in affected areas. Employing spatial regression discontinuity and instrumental variable designs, this study demonstrates that the consolidation of tribal lands facilitated semi-nomadic pastoralism, reduced overgrazing, and spurred communal investments in irrigation and New Deal-era soil conservation efforts. Private Native American farmers with allotments adjacent to newly restored tribal lands benefited from positive spillovers, resulting in higher agricultural productivity. Furthermore, the IRA-prescribed reorganization of tribal governance through the establishment of governing councils led to more efficient public goods provision, particularly in school construction and irrigation infrastructure, though only for reservations that were previously formed out of sub-tribal bands with long pre-existing history of shared governance.