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Land tenure in Tigray: How large is the gender bias?

Author

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  • Dokken, Therere

    (UMB School og Economics and Business)

Abstract

This study finds that female-headed households have 23% smaller owned landholdings and 54% smaller operational landholdings. Differences in characteristics such as age, labor, oxen and previous divorce explain less than half the differences in landholding sizes, while the remaining can be attributed to differences in returns to these characteristics. This indicates that there is a gender bias in access to land, even after land reforms that intended to strengthen women’s rights. The main policy recommendation is to further gender-sensitize the land certification process, strengthen women’s opportunities to cultivate their land and continue the process of securing women’s tenure rights.

Suggested Citation

  • Dokken, Therere, 2013. "Land tenure in Tigray: How large is the gender bias?," CLTS Working Papers 5/13, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Centre for Land Tenure Studies, revised 10 Oct 2019.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:nlsclt:2013_005
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Ethiopia; property rights; discrimination; Oaxaca decomposition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • 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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