Why land reform succeeded in Taiwan and Korea but failed in the Philippines?

The US made three attempts between 1903 and 1918 to institute land reform and distribution in the Philippines (a hundred years ago). Each of these attempts failed. Iyer and Maurer, two scholars from Harvard Business School examine the economic history of the Philippines under Spanish and American colonial rule, and point out why these attempts failed.

The article below is worth a read for anyone interested in knowing why property rights in the Philippines had been weak, and made it costly under those circumstances to pursue an asset reform program. The lessons learned in the Philippines, and different circumstances during the Cold War allowed US-sponsored land reform in Taiwan and Korea to succeed in a relatively short period of time. This laid the foundation for their rapid industrialization.

Covered by Iyer and Maurer is the effect of the Treaty of Paris at the conclusion of the Spanish-American War on the disposition of friar lands, whose acquisition by the US government from the Catholic Church at many times their potential annual income served as a disincentive to the proper implementation of land reform and distribution in the country.