Can a Market-Assisted Land Redistribution Program Improve the Lives of the Poor? Evidence from Malawi

Datar, Gayatri ; Del Carpio, Ximena ; Hoffman, Vivian

关键词: ACCOUNTING;    ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS;    AGRARIAN STRUCTURE;    AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT;    AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-5093
RP-ID  :  WPS5093

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper uses a rural household surveydataset collected in 2006 and 2008 to investigate the impactof a market-based land resettlement project in southernMalawi.The program provided a conditional cash and landtransfer to poor families to relocate to larger plots offarm land.The average treatment effect of the program isestimated using a difference-in-difference matchingtechnique based on propensity score matching; qualitativeinformation complement the analysis to ensure unobservablecharacteristics do not bias the findings. As expected, theresults show a significant effect on landholdings andagricultural production, with land size increasing and maizeproduction increasing by more than 100 kilograms relative tothe control.However, the impacts on food security andasset holdings were mixed.Households that relocated greatdistances had systematically lower impacts than thosehouseholds that stayed within their district of originbecause they had to adapt to unfamiliar agro-ecological,cultural, and market environments.Impacts also variedacross gender of the household head; female-headedbeneficiary households increased their productive andconsumption assets significantly, while male-headedhouseholds increased their asset holdings less so.