Publication: Impacts of Low-Cost Land Certification on Investment and Productivity
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Date
2009
ISSN
00029092
Published
2009
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New land reforms are again high on the policy agenda and low-cost, pro-poor reforms are being tested in poor countries. This article assesses the investment and productivity impacts of the recent low-cost land certification implemented in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, using a unique household and farm-plot-level panel data set, with data from before and up to eight years after the reform. Alternative econometric methods were used to test and control for endogeneity of certification and for unobserved household heterogeneity. Significant positive impacts were found, including effects on the maintenance of soil conservation structures, investment in trees, and land productivity.
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Publication Rural Land Certification in Ethiopia: Process, Initial Impact, and Implications for Other African Countries(2008)Although many African countries have recently adopted highly innovative and pro-poor land laws, lack of implementation thwarts their potentially far-reaching impact on productivity, poverty reduction, and governance. We use a representative household survey from Ethiopia where, over a short period, certificates to more than 20 million plots were issued to describe the certification process, explore its incidence and preliminary impact, and quantify the costs. While this provides many suggestions to ensure sustainability and enhance impact, Ethiopia's highly cost-effective first-time registration process provides important lessons.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 Rural Land Certification in Ethiopia : Process, Initial Impact, and Implications for Other African Countries(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-04)Although many African countries have recently adopted highly innovative and pro-poor land laws, lack of implementation thwarts their potentially far-reaching impact on productivity, poverty reduction, and governance. The authors use a representative household survey from Ethiopia where, over a short period, certificates to more than 20 million plots were issued to describe the certification process, explore its incidence and preliminary impact, and quantify the costs. While this provides many suggestions to ensure sustainability and enhance impact, Ethiopia's highly cost-effective first-time registration process provides important lessons.Publication Land Rental Markets in the Process of Rural Structural Transformation: Productivity and Equity Impacts from China(2009)Although the importance of land rental for overall economic development and development of the non-agricultural economy has long been recognized in theory, empirical evidence on factors that can promote or impede operation of such markets and their productivity and equity impacts, especially in rapidly developing economies with rather equal land endowments, remains limited. A large household level panel is used to illustrate the large contribution of land markets to occupational diversification, productivity of land use, and household welfare. Factors affecting land market participation are derived from a household model with transaction cost and individual ability. Results suggest that, by transferring land from less able and more affluent households who joined the non-farm sector to poorer ones with ample family labor, land markets are critical not only for non-agricultural growth but, by allowing more effective use of potentially idle land can contribute to significant productivity gains. Policy implications are derived.
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