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Land Titling and Litigation

Author

Listed:
  • Benito Arruñada
  • Marco Fabbri
  • Michael Faure

Abstract

We study a land-titling reform implemented as a randomized control trial to isolate its effects on litigation. The reform consisted of demarcating land parcels, registering existing customary rights, and granting additional legal protection to right holders. Ten years after implementation, the reform doubled the likelihood of households experiencing land-related litigation, but disputes did not escalate into more frequent violent episodes. We suggest that this increase in litigation reflects the complementarity of land titling by registration and by judicial procedures aimed at further clarifying property rights, as the reform registered titles to all parcels but left many titles subject to adverse claims. This raised the demand for complementary litigation aimed at perfecting titles for low-value parcels that, under the customary system, were optimal to keep unclarified. Consistent with this explanation, we find that the increase in litigation took place among households that plausibly own land of lower value.

Suggested Citation

  • Benito Arruñada & Marco Fabbri & Michael Faure, 2022. "Land Titling and Litigation," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(1), pages 131-156.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlawec:doi:10.1086/716756
    DOI: 10.1086/716756
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    Cited by:

    1. Deininger,Klaus W. & Goyal,Aparajita, 2023. "Land Institutions to Address New Challenges in Africa : Implications for the World Bank’s Land Policy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10389, The World Bank.
    2. Benito Arruñada & Marco Fabbri & Daniele Nosenzo & Giorgio Zanarone, 2025. "Insider collusion as a threat to property rights: Experimental evidence from West Africa," Economics Working Papers 1917, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    3. Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Deininger, Klaus, 2024. "Using registry data to assess gender-differentiated land and credit market effects of urban land policy reform: Evidence from Lesotho," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • K11 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Property Law
    • K4 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior
    • 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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