PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Choi, Jiseon AU - Jodlowski, Margaret TI - Do Good Intentions Make Good Policy? AID - 10.3368/le.101.3.110723-0118R DP - 2025 Aug 01 TA - Land Economics PG - 374--397 VI - 101 IP - 3 4099 - http://le.uwpress.org/content/101/3/374.short 4100 - http://le.uwpress.org/content/101/3/374.full AB - Thin markets and high prices are typical impediments to farmland access. Access is further restricted in South Korea: regulations prohibit nonoperator ownership and most farmland renting. Nonetheless, nominally illegal renting is common, leading to tenure insecurity for tenant farmers. We model the incentive structure of these landlords and tenants. We use an exogenous policy shock and farm-level panel data to uncover the unobserved illegality of rental contracts, estimating farm-level likelihood of illegal tenure. We find 42% of farmers with a high likelihood of illegal tenure. We examine the effect of this on government payments and rental contract terms.