The study assesses the impact ofdifferent types of land use rights certificates (LURC) onindividual and household welfare, expanding on the previousresearch of Menon, Rodgers, and Kennedy (2016), whichassessed the effects of LURCs on agricultural land onhousehold welfare. This study considers more recent datafrom the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey (VHLSS)of 2014 in addition to VHLSS data from 2002–08 and includesan analysis of LURCs for agricultural as well as residentialland. The study findings are presented below in threesections. The first is an analysis of land use and LURCdistribution trends based on the VHLSS data. The seconddraws on a group of impact evaluations that compares theeffects of having different types of LURCs. We regressindividuals' employment and health care outcomes onwhether their name was included on a LURC. The treatmentvariables are whether one has been issued an agricultural orresidential LURC, with controls for age, education,ethnicity, urban residence, household consumption, landarea, and district. We also regress household-leveloutcomes—expenditures, credit levels, and incomes—on whetherthe household's LURC is singly or jointly titled.Notably, the distribution of LURCs is not randomized, makingit difficult to estimate the causal effects of LURC statusand thereby limiting the conclusions that can be drawn. Thethird section, using 2014 demographic data and LURCdistributions, offers a cost-benefit analysis of efforts toconvert and reissue all remaining singly titled LURCs tojointly titled ones. We estimate the benefit as the impactdifference between single- and jointly titled LURCs ascalculated in the impact evaluation section and estimatecosts as those of reissuing a LURC.
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