IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/wpaper/hal-04034974.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Choice of Titling System in Land and the Blockchain

Author

Listed:
  • Bertrand Crettez

    (CRED - Centre de Recherche en Economie et Droit - UP2 - Université Panthéon-Assas)

  • Marie Obidzinski

    (CRESE - Centre de REcherches sur les Stratégies Economiques (UR 3190) - UFC - Université de Franche-Comté - UBFC - Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté [COMUE], CRED - Centre de Recherche en Economie et Droit - UP2 - Université Panthéon-Assas)

Abstract

Should the advent of the blockchain lead to the reorganization or even the replacement of traditional land title registration systems? In addressing this issue we first generalize the model developed by Arrunada and Garoupa (2005) to study optimal land titling systems. Instead of considering only recording and registration alone, we examine an a priori infinite set of systems, each characterized by its quality (the probability that there is no forfeiture for a given plot of land) and its unit transaction cost. In this respect, the blockchain is viewed as a cost-efficient mechanism, albeit one potentially jeopardized by hacking. We find that, despite the introduction of the blockchain, under some reasonable assumptions it is still socially optimal to maintain traditional public registration. In that case, the optimal quality of protection provided by traditional registration must be either sufficiently high (and higher than that of the blockchain), or low enough (and lower than that of the blockchain). Yet under another set of assumptions, it is optimal to rely on the blockchain alone and to abandon traditional registration.

Suggested Citation

  • Bertrand Crettez & Marie Obidzinski, 2021. "The Choice of Titling System in Land and the Blockchain," Working Papers hal-04034974, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-04034974
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04034974
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-04034974/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Italo A. Gutierrez & Oswaldo Molina, 2020. "Reverting to Informality: Unregistered Property Transactions and the Erosion of the Titling Reform in Peru," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 69(1), pages 317-334.
    2. Rupert, Peter & Wasmer, Etienne, 2012. "Housing and the labor market: Time to move and aggregate unemployment," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 24-36.
    3. Timothy J. Besley & Konrad B. Burchardi & Maitreesh Ghatak, 2012. "Incentives and the De Soto Effect," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(1), pages 237-282.
    4. Dan Andrews & Aida Caldera Sánchez & Åsa Johansson, 2011. "Housing Markets and Structural Policies in OECD Countries," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 836, OECD Publishing.
    5. Miceli, Thomas J & Sirmans, C F, 1995. "The Economics of Land Transfer and Title Insurance," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 81-88, January.
    6. Alston, Lee J & Libecap, Gary D & Schneider, Robert, 1996. "The Determinants and Impact of Property Rights: Land Titles on the Brazilian Frontier," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(1), pages 25-61, April.
    7. Thomas Miceli & C.F. Sirmans & Geoffrey Turnbull, 1998. "Title Assurance and Incentives for Efficient Land Use," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 305-323, November.
    8. Sebastian Galiani & Ernesto Schargrodsky, 2011. "The Dynamics of Land Titling Regularization and Market Development," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2011-088, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Arrunada, Benito & Garoupa, Nuno, 2005. "The Choice of Titling System in Land," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(2), pages 709-727, October.
    10. Miceli, Thomas J & Munneke, Henry J & Sirmans, C F & Turnbull, Geoffrey K, 2002. "Title Systems and Land Values," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(2), pages 565-582, October.
    11. Miceli, Thomas J. & Sirmans, C. F. & Turnbull, Geoffrey K., 2000. "The Dynamic Effects of Land Title Systems," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 370-389, May.
    12. Besley, Timothy, 1995. "Property Rights and Investment Incentives: Theory and Evidence from Ghana," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(5), pages 903-937, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Arrunada, Benito & Garoupa, Nuno, 2005. "The Choice of Titling System in Land," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(2), pages 709-727, October.
    2. Benito ArruÒada, 2003. "Property Enforcement as Organized Consent," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(2), pages 401-444, October.
    3. Chris Papageorgiou & Geoffrey K. Turnbull, 2005. "Economic Development and Property Rights: Time Limits on Land Ownership," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 19(3), pages 271-283, August.
    4. Geoffrey K. Turnbull, 2002. "Land Development under the Threat of Taking," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 69(2), pages 290-308, October.
    5. Miceli, Thomas J. & Munneke, Henry J. & Sirmans, C.F. & Turnbull, Geoffrey K., 2011. "A question of title: Property rights and asset values," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 499-507.
    6. Bessen James, 2009. "Evaluating the Economic Performance of Property Systems," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 5(3), pages 1037-1061, December.
    7. Alexei Karas & William Pyle & Koen Schoors, 2015. "A "de Soto Effect" in Industry? Evidence from the Russian Federation," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(2), pages 451-480.
    8. Thomas Miceli & C.F. Sirmans & Geoffrey Turnbull, 1998. "Title Assurance and Incentives for Efficient Land Use," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 305-323, November.
    9. Benito Arruñada, 2009. "Property titling and conveyancing," Economics Working Papers 1177, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    10. Lueck, Dean & Miceli, Thomas J., 2007. "Property Law," Handbook of Law and Economics, in: A. Mitchell Polinsky & Steven Shavell (ed.), Handbook of Law and Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 3, pages 183-257, Elsevier.
      • Dean Lueck & Thomas J. Miceli, 2004. "Property Law," Working papers 2004-04, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    11. Lei Xu & Shixiang Chen & Shuliu Tian, 2022. "The Mechanism of Land Registration Program on Land Transfer in Rural China: Considering the Effects of Livelihood Security and Agricultural Management Incentives," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-25, August.
    12. Turnbull, Geoffrey K., 2004. "Development moratoria," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 155-169, September.
    13. Galiani Sebastian & Schargrodsky Ernesto, 2016. "The Deregularization of Land Titles," Man and the Economy, De Gruyter, vol. 3(2), pages 169-188, December.
    14. Miceli, Thomas J. & Sirmans, C. F. & Turnbull, Geoffrey K., 2000. "The Dynamic Effects of Land Title Systems," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 370-389, May.
    15. Sebastian Galiani & Ernesto Schargrodsky, 2011. "Land Property Rights and Resource Allocation," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(S4), pages 329-345.
    16. Hawley, Zackary & Miranda, Juan José & Sawyer, W. Charles, 2018. "Land values, property rights, and home ownership: Implications for property taxation in Peru," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 38-47.
    17. Fernando M. Aragon, 2014. "Do better property rights improve local income?: Evidence from First Nations' treaties," Discussion Papers dp14-02, Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University.
    18. Thiemo Fetzer & Samuel Marden, 2017. "Take What You Can: Property Rights, Contestability and Conflict," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(601), pages 757-783, May.
    19. Ramírez-Álvarez, Aurora Alejandra, 2019. "Land titling and its effect on the allocation of public goods: Evidence from Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 1-1.
    20. Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Deininger, Klaus & Goldstein, Markus, 2014. "Environmental and gender impacts of land tenure regularization in Africa: Pilot evidence from Rwanda," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 262-275.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Blockchain; Land titling; Forfeiture;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-04034974. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.