Can Women Benefit From Household Land Titles? Evidence From Nigeria

Formal land titling is recognised as a mechanism to reduce gender disparities in land rights. However, many interventions adopt gender‐neutral, low‐cost designs aimed at ensuring equitable access. Despite technological advances reducing titling costs, effective registry maintenance still imposes significant regulatory and institutional preconditions. This study explores the gender implications of a voluntary, cost‐bearing land registration process for title holders, implemented without explicit gender inclusion requirements. Using nationally representative data from Nigeria's Living Standards Measurement Surveys‐Integrated Surveys on Agriculture and an instrumental variable approach that leverages historical global crop prices weighted by predetermined local crop composition, we investigate how land titles held by household members impact women's land rights, labour market participation and intrahousehold bargaining power. Our results show that while titling strengthens bequest rights for both genders, it notably enhances women's inheritance rights by 64%–66%. Additionally, titling doubles women's wage labour participation without affecting men's engagement and boosts women's control over liquid wealth, as indicated by a 42%–43% increase in bank account access. These findings suggest that an on‐demand titling system, even without explicit gender inclusion requirements, can significantly reduce gender disparities by securing women's land access and reallocating labour to productive activities.