Delinking Land Rights from Land Use: Certification and Migration in Mexico

We show that removing the link between active land use and ownership through certification can result in increased outmigration. Using the rollout of the Mexican land certification program from 1993 to 2006 we find that households obtaining land certificates were subsequently 28% more likely to have a migrant member. This response was differentiated by initial land endowments, land quality, outside wages, and initial land security, as predicted by our model. Effects on land under cultivation were heterogeneous: in high land quality regions land under cultivation increased while in low quality ones it declined.