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The uncomfortable truth about land disputes in Bangladesh: Insights from a household survey

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  • Rahman, Ashikur
  • Hossain, Rafi

Abstract

This research investigates three types of land disputes using a survey of 1050 household from 14 districts spanning across all 7 administrative division of Bangladesh. Moreover, not only we undertake a descriptive evaluation of the survey to understand the severity of land disputes within our sample, we empirically explore the role of land and household factors to understand what makes some land parcels more prone to disputes than others. Furthermore, four interesting findings emerge from our estimations. First, the base line results indicate that approximately 17.7% households had or have disputes in one of their land parcels. This means approximately one in five households in our sample is or was suffering from land dispute(s). Second, approximately half of all land parcels are maintained through un-registered documents, especially for inherited land parcels. This is remarkably low if we compare the state of land registrations to other countries. Third, households with ‘registered’ land parcels on average experience both lower pending disputes and fear of future disputes. On the whole, while we do not attribute causation to our estimates, these correlations motivate further empirical assessments, so that we can improve our understanding of the state of land disputes in Bangladesh.

Suggested Citation

  • Rahman, Ashikur & Hossain, Rafi, 2020. "The uncomfortable truth about land disputes in Bangladesh: Insights from a household survey," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:95:y:2020:i:c:s0264837719319477
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104557
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jan Kees van Donge & Levi Pherani, 1999. "Law and order as a development issue: Land conflicts and the creation of social order in Southern Malawi," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(2), pages 48-70.
    2. Fred-Mensah, Ben K., 1999. "Capturing Ambiguities: Communal Conflict Management Alternative in Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 951-965, June.
    3. Deininger, Klaus & Castagnini, Raffaella, 2006. "Incidence and impact of land conflict in Uganda," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 321-345, July.
    4. Besley, Timothy, 1995. "Property Rights and Investment Incentives: Theory and Evidence from Ghana," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(5), pages 903-937, October.
    5. Klaus Deininger, 2003. "Land Policies for Growth and Poverty Reduction," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15125.
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    Cited by:

    1. Mohammed Shuaib & Noor Hafizah Hassan & Sahnius Usman & Shadab Alam & Surbhi Bhatia & Parul Agarwal & Sheikh Mohammad Idrees, 2022. "Land Registry Framework Based on Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) for Environmental Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-29, April.
    2. Shunran Wang & Fangping Rao & Xianlei Ma & Xiaoping Shi, 2022. "Farmland Dispute Prevention: The Role of Land Titling, Social Capital and Household Capability," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-14, October.
    3. Saleh Shahriar, 2021. "Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, Numbers and Narratives in Bangladesh’s Economic Development," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 22(2), pages 250-253, September.

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