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Customary Land Conversion in African Cities

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  • Pierre M. Picard

    (DEM, Université du Luxembourg)

  • Harris Selod

    (The World Bank)

Abstract

We propose an urban land use model to discuss the conversion of customary agricultural land to formal and informal residential land in a developing country city. Because customary land sales are insecure, migrant buyers face a risk of eviction, which affects land markets in non-trivial ways. Both tenure risk and asymmetric information cause the city extent and population to be too small. Empirical tests of the model for Bamako, Mali, confirm the existence of tenure insecurity and information asymmetry in the primary but not in the secondary land market, consistently with information revelation after initial sales by customary holders.

Suggested Citation

  • Pierre M. Picard & Harris Selod, 2023. "Customary Land Conversion in African Cities," DEM Discussion Paper Series 23-09, Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg.
  • Handle: RePEc:luc:wpaper:23-09
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    File URL: https://hdl.handle.net/10993/57039
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Letrouit, Lucie & Selod, Harris, 2024. "Informal land markets and ethnic kinship in West African cities," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    2. Lucie Letrouit & Harris Selod, 2024. "Informal land markets and ethnic kinship in West African cities [Marchés fonciers informels et cousinage ethnique dans les villes d'Afrique de l'Ouest]," Post-Print hal-04525074, HAL.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Urbanization; Land Markets; Property Rights; Land Tenure Formalization; Market Failure.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
    • P14 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Property Rights

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