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Effective land ownership, female empowerment, and food security: Evidence from Peru

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  • Schling, Maja
  • Pazos, Nicolás

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of women’s informal land ownership on women’s empowerment and household food security in the context of Peruvian family farming. Using an instrumental variable approach, we explore whether self-declared informal ownership of plots provides women with increased bargaining power, empowering them to participate more actively in productive decision-making as well as endowing them with the necessary resources to improve crop diversity and food security. While our results do not find significant effects of informal land ownership on three dimensions of women’s empowerment (production, income, credit), we do find that owning land significantly decreases the daily time dedicated to agricultural work, possibly freeing up time for the woman to engage in other activities. Results also show that women’s land ownership significantly increases the level of crop diversity and improves the household’s probability of being food secure by 20 percentage points. This suggests that equal access to land, even without formal title, plays an important role in improving household welfare among smallholder family farmers.

Suggested Citation

  • Schling, Maja & Pazos, Nicolás, 2024. "Effective land ownership, female empowerment, and food security: Evidence from Peru," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:181:y:2024:i:c:s0305750x24001505
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106680
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender empowerment; Food security; Land property rights; Peru; Latin America;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C26 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimation
    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy

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