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Allocation of Land Tenure Rights in Tigray: How Large Is the Gender Bias?

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  • Therese Dokken

Abstract

This study investigates gender differences in land ownership and use in northern Ethiopia. Female-headed households have 23% smaller owned landholdings and 54% smaller operational landholdings. Household endowments of nonland productive inputs are important, but decomposition analysis shows that differences in observable characteristics such as labor and oxen explain less than half of these differences, whereas the remaining differences can be attributed to differences in returns to these characteristics. The latter suggests a gender bias in land allocation. The main policy recommendation is to strengthen women’s opportunities to cultivate their land and continue the process of securing women’s tenure rights.

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  • Therese Dokken, 2015. "Allocation of Land Tenure Rights in Tigray: How Large Is the Gender Bias?," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 91(1), pages 106-125.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwp:landec:v:91:y:2015:i:1:p:106-125
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    Cited by:

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    2. Hasanbasri, Ardina & Koolwal, Gayatri & Kilic, Talip & Moylan, Heather, 2021. "Multidimensionality of Land Ownership Among Men and Women in Sub-Saharan Africa," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315317, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    3. Bethelhem Legesse Debela, 2017. "Factors Affecting Differences in Livestock Asset Ownership Between Male- and Female-Headed Households in Northern Ethiopia," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 29(2), pages 328-347, April.
    4. Holden, Stein T. & Tilahun, Mesfin, 2017. "Land Distribution in Northern Ethiopia from 1998 to 2016: Gender-disaggregated, Spatial and Intertemporal Variation," CLTS Working Papers 3/17, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Centre for Land Tenure Studies, revised 21 Oct 2019.
    5. Debela, Bethelhem Legesse, 2016. "Factors affecting differences in livestock asset ownership between male and female-headed households in northern Ethiopia," 2016 Fifth International Conference, September 23-26, 2016, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 246906, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    6. Ayelech Kidie Mengesha & Thomas Bauer & Doris Damyanovic & Sayeh Kassaw Agegnehu & Reinfried Mansberger & Gernot Stoeglehner, 2022. "Gender Analysis of Landholding and Situation of Female-Headed Households after Land Registration: The Case of Machakel Woreda," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-28, July.
    7. Chiwuzie Augustina & Daniel Ibrahim Dabara & Adebayo Olusegun Ogunba & Olusegun Joseph Omotehinshe, 2021. "Sustainable Land and Food Security in Female-Led Agrarian Households of Tula, Nigeria," AfRES 2021-020, African Real Estate Society (AfRES).
    8. Mengesha, Ayelech Kidie & Damyanovic, Doris & Mansberger, Reinfried & Agegnehu, Sayeh Kassaw & Stoeglehner, Gernot, 2021. "Reducing gender inequalities through land titling? The case of Gozamin Woreda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    9. David W. Martin, 2019. "Gender Concerns When Noah the Economist Ranks Biodiversity Protection Policies," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-13, October.
    10. repec:dav:journl:y:2019:v:8:i:10:p:282 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Holden, Stein T. & Tilahun, Mesfin, 2020. "Farm size and gender distribution of land: Evidence from Ethiopian land registry data," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    12. Holden, Stein T., 2020. "Gender dimensions of land tenure reforms in Ethiopia 1995-2020," CLTS Working Papers 6/20, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Centre for Land Tenure Studies.

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    JEL classification:

    • Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment

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