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Small price incentives increase women's access to land titles in Tanzania

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  • Ali, Daniel Ayalew
  • Collin, Matthew
  • Deininger, Klaus
  • Dercon, Stefan
  • Sandefur, Justin
  • Zeitlin, Andrew

Abstract

We present results from a field experiment using price incentives to address two obstacles to women's access to formal land ownership. First, the price of formal land titles is often prohibitive, restricting access for both men and women. Second, when formal titles are issued, men are recorded as the sole owners of household land in the vast majority of cases. In theory, these problems may be in tension: requirements to grant women equal ownership may reduce the overall household demand for titling. In practice, we find no such trade-off: when residents of low-income, unplanned settlements in Dar es Salaam were offered price discounts for formal land titles, demand rose significantly. Price elasticity of demand was unchanged when price discounts were conditional on registering a woman as (co-)owner of household land. Furthermore, conditional price discounts achieved near gender parity in land ownership.

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  • Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Collin, Matthew & Deininger, Klaus & Dercon, Stefan & Sandefur, Justin & Zeitlin, Andrew, 2016. "Small price incentives increase women's access to land titles in Tanzania," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 107-122.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:deveco:v:123:y:2016:i:c:p:107-122
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2016.06.001
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    2. Henderson, J. Vernon & Liu, Vivian, 2023. "Urban land markets and city development: Sub-Saharan Africa," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119388, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
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    4. Lnu,Anukriti & Herrera-Almanza,Catalina & Karra,Mahesh Venkat, 2022. "Bring a Friend : Strengthening Women’s Social Networks and Reproductive Autonomy in India," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10107, The World Bank.
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    6. Deininger, Klaus & Xia, Fang, 2018. "Assessing the long-term performance of large-scale land transfers: Challenges and opportunities in Malawi’s estate sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 281-296.
    7. Burrone, Sara & Giannelli, Gianna Claudia, 2023. "Do Households Where Women Own Land Fare Better for Food Security? Evidence for Tanzania," IZA Discussion Papers 16382, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Kacana Sipangule, 2017. "Agribusinesses, smallholder tenure security, and plot-level investments: Evidence from rural Tanzania," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-106, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Jehovaness Aikaeli & Thomas Markussen, 2017. "The effects of land titling in Tanzania," WIDER Working Paper Series 168, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Lecoutere, Els & Spielman, David J. & Van Campenhout, Bjorn, 2023. "Empowering women through targeting information or role models: Evidence from an experiment in agricultural extension in Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    11. Manara, Martina & Regan, Tanner, 2020. "Eliciting demand for title deeds: lab-in-the-field evidence from urban Tanzania," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 107538, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Kacana Sipangule, 2017. "Agribusinesses, smallholder tenure security, and plot-level investments: Evidence from rural Tanzania," WIDER Working Paper Series 106, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Land titling; Formalization; Gender; Field experiment; Tanzania; Intrahousehold;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H42 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Private Goods
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • K11 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Property Law
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • 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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