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Does insecure land tenure deter investment? Evidence from a randomized controlled trial

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  • Huntington, Heather
  • Shenoy, Ajay

Abstract

There is broad agreement among the most prominent observational studies that tenure insecurity deters investment. We present new experimental evidence testing this proposition: a land certification program randomized across villages in Zambia. Our results contradict the consensus. Though the intervention improved perceptions of tenure security, it had no impact on investment in the following season. The impact is still zero even after a cross-randomized agroforestry extension relaxes financial and technical constraints to agroforestry investment. Though relaxing these constraints has a direct effect, it is not enhanced by granting land tenure, implying tenure insecurity had not been a barrier to investment.

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  • Huntington, Heather & Shenoy, Ajay, 2021. "Does insecure land tenure deter investment? Evidence from a randomized controlled trial," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:deveco:v:150:y:2021:i:c:s0304387821000110
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2021.102632
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    1. Visser, Martine & le Roux, Leonard & Mulwa, Chalmers K. & Tibesigwa, Byela & Bezabih, Mintewab, 2024. "Adaptive investment with land tenure and weather risk: Behavioral evidence from Tanzania," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 398-434.
    2. Hadera, Amanuel & Tadesse, Tewodros & Zeweld, Woldegebrial & Tesfay, Girmay & Gebremedhin, Bereket, 2024. "Trust, tenure security and investment in high-value forests," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    3. Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Deininger, Klaus, 2021. "Does title increase large farm productivity? Institutional determinants of large land-based investments' performance in Zambia," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315328, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Anthony Harris & Anthony D'Agostino & Sara Litke-Farzaneh & Beryl Seiler & Matt Sloan, "undated". "Morocco Land Productivity Project: Evaluation Design Report," Mathematica Policy Research Reports f3fc788501b64608b17e1cb23, Mathematica Policy Research.
    5. Haddis Solomon & Yoko Kijima, 2022. "Does Land Certification Mitigate the Negative Impact of Weather Shocks? Evidence from Rural Ethiopia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-17, October.
    6. Yilin Cui & Cong Li & Yan Jiang, 2024. "The Role of Procedural Fairness: Land Titling Programs and Agricultural Investment in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-19, September.
    7. Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Deininger, Klaus, 2022. "Institutional determinants of large land-based investments’ performance in Zambia: Does title enhance productivity and structural transformation?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    8. Lingling Hou & Pengfei Liu & Xiaohui Tian, 2023. "Grassland tenure reform and grassland quality in China," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(5), pages 1388-1404, October.
    9. Gebremedhin, Bereket & Tadesse, Tewodros & Hadera, Amanuel & Tesfay, Girmay & Rannestad, Meley Mekonen, 2023. "Risk preferences, adoption and welfare impacts of multiple agroforestry practices," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    10. Subramanian, Arjunan & Kumar, Parmod, 2024. "Property rights, factor allocation and household welfare: Experimental evidence from a land titling program in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    11. Taisuke Takayama & Hirotaka Matsuda & Tomoaki Nakatani & Kuniaki Saito, 2022. "Do partial land rights increase productivity and investment? evidence from the redistributive land reform in post–world war II Japan," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 60(2), pages 77-100, June.
    12. Adofu, Ilemona & Okwanya, Innocent & Adofu,Sophia Ojochogwu & Eraye, Micheal, 2024. "Land Tenure Insecurity and Agricultural Recovery: Evidence from Displaced Farmers in North-Central Nigeria," International Journal of Food and Agricultural Economics (IJFAEC), Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University, Department of Economics and Finance, vol. 12(3), July.
    13. Bridget Bwalya Umar & Progress H. Nyanga, 2023. "Customary Land Certification, Governance and Natural Resource Use in Zambia: A Social Learning Approach," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 35(5), pages 997-1027, October.
    14. Alhola, Sara & Gwaindepi, Abel, 2024. "Land tenure formalisation and perceived tenure security: Two decades of the land administration project in Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    15. Fabbri, Marco, 2021. "Property rights and prosocial behavior: Evidence from a land tenure reform implemented as randomized control-trial," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 552-566.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    P48; O13;

    JEL classification:

    • P48 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Legal Institutions; Property Rights; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Regional Studies
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products

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