Inheritance Matters. Changing Land Use Trends Amongst the Elderly in Rural Hungary

In many countries in post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe, the elderly own significant portions of rural land. For a variety of reasons, however, they have been wary of passing on their land to heirs or selling it on the open market. Governments in the region have developed schemes to address land use. This paper investigates the land-for-pension scheme in Hungary, exploring some of the assumptions and objectives that lie beneath the policy and its implementation. It examines the effects of this scheme on those who took part, on land consolidation, and on land use. Rather than focusing on a cost-benefit analysis at a macro-level, the paper explores individual histories of land use and interviews with local implementing agencies. Decision-making regarding land use is examined not only in terms of changing property rights regimes, land values, and modes of production, but also in relation to attitudes towards aging and care, family relationships, and small-scale farming. The research responds to calls for more rigorous evaluations of land programs in CEE countries.