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Getting the (Gender-Disaggregated) lay of the land: Impact of survey respondent selection on measuring land ownership and rights

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  • Kilic, Talip
  • Moylan, Heather
  • Koolwal, Gayatri

Abstract

Monitoring international goals on land ownership and rights relies fundamentally on the quality of underlying data, which, in the context of surveys, are directly impacted by how respondents are selected. This study leverages two national surveys in Malawi that asked households about household members’ ownership and rights of agricultural land, but which differed in their approach to respondent selection. Compared with the international best practice of privately interviewing adults about their personal asset ownership and rights, the analysis reveals that the business-as-usual approach of interviewing only a most knowledgeable household member on adult members’ ownership and rights of agricultural land leads to (i) a higher share of men claiming exclusive reported and economic ownership, and (ii) a lower share of women claiming joint reported and economic ownership. Using private interviews of spouses’ ownership and rights over the same set of parcels, the analysis also shows that when conflicting claims emerge, proxies for greater household status for women are positively associated with scenarios where women attribute at least some land ownership to themselves.

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  • Kilic, Talip & Moylan, Heather & Koolwal, Gayatri, 2021. "Getting the (Gender-Disaggregated) lay of the land: Impact of survey respondent selection on measuring land ownership and rights," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:146:y:2021:i:c:s0305750x21001601
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105545
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    Cited by:

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    2. Hasanbasri, Ardina & Koolwal, Gayatri & Kilic, Talip & Moylan, Heather, 2021. "Multidimensionality of Land Ownership Among Men and Women in Sub-Saharan Africa," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315317, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    3. Gourlay,Sydney & Maggio,Giuseppe & Safyan,Anahit & Zezza,Alberto, 2022. "Measuring Land Tenure at the Individual Level : Lessons from Methodological Research in Armenia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10140, The World Bank.
    4. Talip Kilic & Goedele Van den & Gayatri Koolwal & Heather Moylan, 2023. "Are You Being Asked? Impacts of Respondent Selection on Measuring Employment in Malawi," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 32(5), pages 495-522.
    5. Elena Serfilippi & Daniele Giovannucci & David Ameyaw & Ankur Bansal & Thomas Asafua Nketsia Wobill & Roberta Blankson & Rashi Mishra, 2022. "Benefits and Challenges of Making Data More Agile: A Review of Recent Key Approaches in Agriculture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-18, December.
    6. Genicot, Garance & Hernandez-de-Benito, Maria, 2022. "Women’s land rights and village institutions in Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    7. Calogero Carletto, 2021. "Better data, higher impact: improving agricultural data systems for societal change [Correlated non-classical measurement errors, ‘second best’ policy inference, and the inverse size-productivity r," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 48(4), pages 719-740.
    8. Joshua Brubaker & Talip Kilic & Philip Wollburg, 2021. "Representativeness of individual-level data in COVID-19 phone surveys: Findings from Sub-Saharan Africa," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(11), pages 1-27, November.
    9. Hasanbasri,Ardina Roosiany & Kilic,Talip & Koolwal,Gayatri B. & Moylan,Heather G., 2022. "Individual Wealth Inequality : Measurement and Evidence from Low- and Middle-Income Countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9987, The World Bank.
    10. Teklewold, Hailemariam, 2023. "Understanding gender differences on the choices of a portfolio of climate-smart agricultural practices in sub-saharan Africa," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 29(C).
    11. Maria Coelho & Aieshwarya Davis & Alexander Klemm & Carolina Osorio-Buitron, 2024. "Gendered taxes: the interaction of tax policy with gender equality," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 31(5), pages 1413-1460, October.
    12. Julien, Jacques C. & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Rada, Nicholas E., 2023. "Gender and agricultural Productivity: Econometric evidence from Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    13. Isabel Brigitte Lambrecht & Kristi Mahrt & Nang Lun Kham Synt & Hnin Ei Win & Khin Zin Win, 2023. "Gender gaps in land rights: Explaining different measures and why households differ in Myanmar," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 54(5), pages 728-741, September.
    14. Unger, Eva-Maria & Lemmen, Christiaan & Bennett, Rohan, 2023. "Women’s access to land and the Land Administration Domain Model (LADM): Requirements, modelling and assessment," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    15. Hasanbasri,Ardina Roosiany & Kilic,Talip & Koolwal,Gayatri B. & Moylan,Heather G., 2021. "Individual Wealth and Time Use : Evidence from Cambodia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9765, The World Bank.
    16. Masselus, Lise & Fiala, Nathan, 2024. "Whom to ask? Testing respondent effects in household surveys," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).

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