De Facto Property Rights Recognition, Labor Supply and Investment of the Poor in Brazil

We analyze the impact of the Land Tenure Regularization Program implemented in the Federal District of Brazil on household labor supply, on household and per capita labor earnings and on home current and future investment. The program was established in 2009 by the Plano Diretor de Ordenamento Territorial – PDOT, which defines the settlement areas of social interest. The adopted definition is regarded as recognition of de facto property rights in opposition to de jure property rights that, by the time the questionnaires were applied, were still not granted. Using propensity score matching and a dataset from the Socioeconomic Research on Social Vulnerable Territories in Federal District, collected by DIEESE in 2010, we find results that are mostly consistent with the empirical literature and show a higher labor supply of men in treated households as well as better jobs, higher household income, higher per capita income and hourly wages of treated households in comparison with the control group. Our results also point to a greater propensity to invest in their homes associated with an increase in the perception of safety of the treated households.