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How Urban Land Titling and Registry Reform Affect Land and Credit Markets : Evidencefrom Lesotho

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  • Deininger,Klaus W.
  • Ali,Daniel Ayalew

Abstract

Using spatial fixed effects and time-varying controls, this paper draws on complete registrydata for 1981–2019, supplemented by satellite imagery, to analyze impacts of urban land titling for some 40,000 gridcells in Lesotho. Beyond confirming the short-term impacts on female co-ownership and investment, previously reported,the paper documents medium-term impacts on land sale and mortgage market activity and women’s participation in thesemarkets. Although titling was instrumental in ensuring the effectiveness of an earlier legal reform that allowed womento be co-owners of land, the credit and land market effects are due not to titling but to changes in policy to reducethe transaction cost of registering land that took effect just before titling started. Downward shifts in the timerequired to register transactions support this interpretation. The paper concludes by discussing what theevidence implies for design and evaluation of property registration programs.

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  • Deininger,Klaus W. & Ali,Daniel Ayalew, 2022. "How Urban Land Titling and Registry Reform Affect Land and Credit Markets : Evidencefrom Lesotho," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10043, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10043
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