Publication: Legal Knowledge and Economic Development: The Case of Land Rights in Uganda
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Date
2008
ISSN
00237639
Published
2008
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Abstract
Although many African countries have recently embarked on revisions of their land legislations to give recognition to customary arrangements and strengthen women's rights, few studies assess the actual or potential economic impact of such steps. We use data from Uganda to assess the impact of tenure regime, perceived transfer rights, and legal knowledge on investment, productivity, and land values. While results support strong and positive investment-impacts of tenure and transferability, knowledge of the new law's provisions adds considerably to these, pointing towards substantial potential from disseminating the law that has not yet been fully realized.
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Publication Legal Knowledge and Economic Development : The Case of Land Rights in Uganda(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-03)Mixed evidence on the impact of formal title in much of Africa is often used to question the relevance of dealing with land policy issues in this continent. The authors use data from Uganda to assess the impact of a disaggregated set of rights on investment, productivity, and land values, and to test the hypothesis that individuals' lack of knowledge of the new law reduces their tenure security. Results point toward strong and positive effects of greater tenure security and transferability. Use of exogenous knowledge of its provisions as a proxy for the value of the land law suggests that this piece of legislation had major economic benefits that remain to be fully realized.Publication Impacts of Land Certification on Tenure Security: Investment, and Land Market Participation : Evidence from Ethiopia(2011)While early attempts at land titling in Africa were often unsuccessful, factors such as new legislation, low-cost methods, and increasing demand for land have generated renewed interest. A four-period panel allows use of a pipeline and difference-indifferences approach to assess impacts of land registration in Ethiopia. We find that the program increased tenure security, land-related investment, and rental market participation and yielded benefits significantly above the cost of implementation.Publication Tenure Insecurity, Gender, Low-Cost Land Certification and Land Rental Market Participation in Ethiopia(2011)There is a renewed interest in whether land reforms can contribute to market development and poverty reduction in Africa. This paper assesses effects on the allocative efficiency of the land rental market of the low-cost approach to land registration and certification of restricted property rights that was implemented in Ethiopia in the late 1990s. Four rounds of a balanced household panel from 16 villages in northern Ethiopia are analysed, showing that land certification initially enhanced land rental market participation of (potential) tenant and landlord households, especially those that are headed by females.Publication Do Overlapping Land Rights Reduce Agricultural Investment? Evidence from Uganda(2008)While the need for land-related investment for sustainable land management and increased productivity is well recognized, quantitative evidence on agricultural productivity effects of secure property rights in Africa is scant. Within-household analysis of investments by owner-cum-occupants in Uganda points toward significant and quantitatively large investment effects of full ownership. Registration is estimated to have no investment effects, whereas measures to strengthen occupancy rights attenuate investment disincentives. While this supports the importance of secure tenure as a precondition for growth, it also suggests that interventions aiming to increase tenure security need to be context-specific for it to be fully effective.Publication Do Overlapping Property Rights Reduce Agricultural Investment? Evidence from Uganda(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-08)The need for land-related investment to ensure sustainable land management and increase productivity of land use is widely recognized. However, there is little rigorous evidence on the effects of property rights for increasing agricultural productivity and contributing toward poverty reduction in Africa. Whether and by how much overlapping property rights reduce investment incentives, and the scope for policies to counter such disincentives, are thus important policy issues. Using information on parcels under ownership and usufruct by the same household from a nationally representative survey in Uganda, the authors find significant disincentives associated with overlapping property rights on short and long-term investments. The paper combines this result with information on crop productivity to obtain a rough estimate of the magnitudes involved. The authors make suggestions on ways to eliminate such inefficiencies.
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