In cooperative property rights systems, workers jointly own and manage production, whereas in outside-ownership systems, an owner contracts workers. Despite a rich literature on how the allocation of property rights matters for specialization, efficiency, and equity, little causal evidence exists. During a land reform in El Salvador in 1980, the military government reorganized properties owned by individuals with cumulative landholdings over 500 hectares into cooperatives; properties below this threshold remained as outside-owned properties. Using the discontinuous probability of cooperative formation, I provide evidence on the effects of cooperative property rights relative to outside ownership on specialization, productivity, and worker equity.

Does variation in how religious festivals are celebrated have economic consequences? We study the economic impacts of the timing of Catholic patron saint day festivals in Mexico. For causal identification, we exploit cross-locality variation in festival dates and in the timing of agricultural seasons. We estimate the impact of "agriculturally-coinciding" festivals (those coinciding with peak planting or harvest months) on long-run economic development of localities. Agriculturally-coinciding festivals lead to lower household income and worse development outcomes overall. These negative effects are likely due to lower agricultural productivity, which inhibits structural transformation out of agriculture. Agriculturally-coinciding festivals may nonetheless persist because they also lead to higher religiosity and social capital.