Land trade in Buenos Aires during the height of capital asset transfers in Argentina

Capital concentration which sprung up during the mid-70?s, deepened in the present decade by the unusual strength of the enterprise mergings and absorptions on the one hand, and the great capital assets transfers, with the privatization of public services at its core, on the other. Nevertheless these transfers have been important not only within industrial production, bur also different services, as well as agricultural and livestock sector. This paper provides the analytical tools needed for the evaluation of land trading dimensions and the analysis of the land market during the nineties. The results exposed are based on the analysis of a sample composed by the grea test landowners of the Province of Buenos Aires (those owning 2.500 or more hectares). Methodology applied was based on the identification of all land lots which experienced property modifications between 1989 and 1996, the identification of the type of property and the total extension of the land belonging to the purchasers. The main results reveal the specific patterns of land trading between 1989 and 1996 and prove that the core of the greatest landowners was not affected by the outstanding process of capital assets transfers which characterized the Argentine economy throughout the stated period. This indicates the absence of any massive land selling process as the existing property concentration is quite high, and resources from non-agricultural and livestock sectors have been introduced through ways of production having no incidence on property (Agricultural Investment Funds). Also, the evidence reveals the existence of a land market segmentation, derived from two different circuits, namely one encompassing the greatest landowners and another one including the medium and small ones. Finally, the analysis shot-vs that reduced weight of foreign assets on land trading has not been modified compared with historical records.