This dissertation consists of two essays that address two distinct topics concerning the land tenure institutions of Bulgaria. The first essay studies the evolution of land tenure institutions, focusing on the period 1839-1944 during which the country experienced two distinct land tenure regimes — that of the late Ottoman Empire (1839-1878) and that of the post-liberation period (1878-1944). The major factors which determined the shape of these institutions are identified and analyzed by critically evaluating two theories of institutional change — the efficiency theory developed by Demsetz (1967) and the social conflict theory developed by Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson (2005). Consistent with the latter theory, the essay argues that political institutions and the distribution of resources determined the prevailing political balance which in turn determined the structure of land tenure institutions during 1839-1878. The process of institutional change was endogenous to the Ottoman Empire but exogenous to Bulgaria as the institutions of the latter were embedded into those of the former. During the 1878-1944 period, however, the initial source of prevailing political power was an external factor — the Russian occupation forces. The essay suggests that the social conflict theory be expanded to include the embeddedness factor and the role of external factors in the process of institutional change.