The Effects of Land Title Registration on Tenure Security, Investment and the Allocation of Productive Resources : Evidence from Ghana

Agyei-Holmes, Andrew ; Buehren, Niklas ; Goldstein, Markus ; Osei, Robert ; Osei-Akoto, Isaac ; Udry, Christopher

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: SMALLHOLDERS;    LAND TITLING;    RESOURCE ALLOCATION;    LAND TENURE;    RURAL LAND MARKET;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-9376
RP-ID  :  WPS9376

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Smallholder farmers' investmentdecisions and the efficiency of resource allocation dependon the security of land tenure. This paper develops a simplemodel that captures essential institutional features ofrural land markets in Ghana, including the dependence offuture rights over land on current cultivation and landrental decisions. The model predictions guide the evaluationof a pilot land titling intervention that took place in anurbanizing area located in the Central Region of Ghana. Theevaluation is based on a regression discontinuity designcombined with three rounds of household survey datacollected over a period of six years. The analysis findsstrong markers for the program's success in registeringland in the targeted program area. However, landregistration does not translate into agriculturalinvestments or increased credit taking. Instead, treatedhouseholds decrease their amount of agricultural labor,accompanied by only a small reduction of agriculturalproduction and no changes in productivity. In line with thisresult, households decrease their landholdings amid a surgein land valuations. The analysis uncovers importantwithin-household differences in how women and men responddifferentially to the program. There appears to be a generalshift to nonfarm economic activities, and women'sbusiness profits increased considerably.