Formalization without Certification? : Experimental Evidence on Property Rights and Investment

We present evidence from the first large-scale randomized-controlled trial of a land formalization program. We examine the link between land demarcation and investment in rural Benin in light of a model of agricultural production under insecure tenure. The demarcation process involved communities in...

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Main Authors:	Goldstein, Markus, Houngbedji, Kenneth, Kondylis, Florence, O'Sullivan, Michael, Selod, Harris
Format:	Journal Article
Published:	Elsevier 2018
Subjects:	PROPERTY RIGHTS AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENT LAND ADMINISTRATION GENDER NATURAL RESOURCES EXPROPRIATION RISK LAND TENURE RESOURCE ALLOCATION
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29192

id	okr-10986-29192
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-291922021-05-25T10:54:43Z Formalization without Certification? : Experimental Evidence on Property Rights and Investment Goldstein, Markus Houngbedji, Kenneth Kondylis, Florence O'Sullivan, Michael Selod, Harris PROPERTY RIGHTS AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENT LAND ADMINISTRATION GENDER NATURAL RESOURCES EXPROPRIATION RISK LAND TENURE RESOURCE ALLOCATION We present evidence from the first large-scale randomized-controlled trial of a land formalization program. We examine the link between land demarcation and investment in rural Benin in light of a model of agricultural production under insecure tenure. The demarcation process involved communities in the mapping and attribution of land rights; cornerstones marked parcel boundaries and offered lasting landmarks. The tenure security improvement through demarcation induces a 23 to 43 percent shift toward long-term investment on treated parcels. We explore gender and parcel location as relevant dimensions of heterogeneity. We find that female-managed landholdings in treated villages are more likely to be left fallow—an important soil fertility investment. Women respond to an exogenous tenure security change by shifting investment away from relatively secure, demarcated land and toward less secure land outside the village to guard those parcels. 2018-01-19T19:28:42Z 2018-01-19T19:28:42Z 2018-01-03 Journal Article Journal of Development Economics 0304-3878 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29192 CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Elsevier Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research Africa Benin
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
topic	PROPERTY RIGHTS AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENT LAND ADMINISTRATION GENDER NATURAL RESOURCES EXPROPRIATION RISK LAND TENURE RESOURCE ALLOCATION
spellingShingle	PROPERTY RIGHTS AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENT LAND ADMINISTRATION GENDER NATURAL RESOURCES EXPROPRIATION RISK LAND TENURE RESOURCE ALLOCATION Goldstein, Markus Houngbedji, Kenneth Kondylis, Florence O'Sullivan, Michael Selod, Harris Formalization without Certification? : Experimental Evidence on Property Rights and Investment
geographic_facet	Africa Benin
description	We present evidence from the first large-scale randomized-controlled trial of a land formalization program. We examine the link between land demarcation and investment in rural Benin in light of a model of agricultural production under insecure tenure. The demarcation process involved communities in the mapping and attribution of land rights; cornerstones marked parcel boundaries and offered lasting landmarks. The tenure security improvement through demarcation induces a 23 to 43 percent shift toward long-term investment on treated parcels. We explore gender and parcel location as relevant dimensions of heterogeneity. We find that female-managed landholdings in treated villages are more likely to be left fallow—an important soil fertility investment. Women respond to an exogenous tenure security change by shifting investment away from relatively secure, demarcated land and toward less secure land outside the village to guard those parcels.
format	Journal Article
author	Goldstein, Markus Houngbedji, Kenneth Kondylis, Florence O'Sullivan, Michael Selod, Harris
author_facet	Goldstein, Markus Houngbedji, Kenneth Kondylis, Florence O'Sullivan, Michael Selod, Harris
author_sort	Goldstein, Markus
title	Formalization without Certification? : Experimental Evidence on Property Rights and Investment
title_short	Formalization without Certification? : Experimental Evidence on Property Rights and Investment
title_full	Formalization without Certification? : Experimental Evidence on Property Rights and Investment
title_fullStr	Formalization without Certification? : Experimental Evidence on Property Rights and Investment
title_full_unstemmed	Formalization without Certification? : Experimental Evidence on Property Rights and Investment
title_sort	formalization without certification? : experimental evidence on property rights and investment
publisher	Elsevier
publishDate	2018
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29192
_version_	1764468734664114176

Formalization without Certification? : Experimental Evidence on Property Rights and Investment

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