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Land tenure and investment incentives: Evidence from West Africa

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  • Fenske, James

Abstract

The existing literature on the relationship between property rights in land and agricultural investment in Africa has given results that are often confusing and contradictory. I make two clarifying contributions to this literature. First, I pull together existing studies and investigate whether the results they find have been affected by research methods or local contexts. Studies with small sample sizes, those that use binary investment measures, and those that control for household fixed effects are less likely to find a statistically significant link between land tenure and investment. Self-reported tenure security has been a poor predictor of investment outcomes. Second, I test for a relationship between land tenure and agricultural investment in nine data sets from West Africa. While the link between tenure and investment is significant for fallow and tree planting, it is less robust for labor use and other inputs, such as manure or chemical fertilizer.

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of Development Economics.

Volume (Year): 95 (2011)
Issue (Month): 2 (July)
Pages: 137-156

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Handle: RePEc:eee:deveco:v:95:y:2011:i:2:p:137-156

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Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/devec

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Keywords: Property rights Investment West Africa Land tenure;

References

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Cited by:
  1. Leopoldo Fergusson, 2012. "The Political Economy of Rural Property Rights and the Persistence of the Dual Economy," DOCUMENTOS CEDE 009797, UNIVERSIDAD DE LOS ANDES-CEDE.
  2. Derek Stacey, 2011. "Tenure Insecurity, Adverse Selection, and Liquidity in Rural Land Markets," Working Papers 1269, Queen's University, Department of Economics.
  3. Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Deininger, Klaus & Goldstein, Markus, 2011. "Environmental and gender impacts of land tenure regularization in Africa : pilot evidence from Rwanda," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5765, The World Bank.
  4. Otieno, David Jakinda & Hubbard, Lionel J. & Ruto, Eric, 2012. "Determinants of technical efficiency in beef cattle production in Kenya," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 125853, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
  5. Bowser, William & Nelson, Carl H., 2012. "Land institutions, investments, and income diversification : Pathways to economic development for Brazil’s quilombo communities," IFPRI discussion papers 1179, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
  6. Ayalew Ali, Daniel & Goldstein, Markus, 2011. "Environmental and Gender Impacts of Land Tenure Regularization in Africa," Working Papers UNU-WIDER Research Paper , World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

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