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Investment and credit effects of land titling and registration:

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  • de Laiglesia, Juan R.

Abstract

This paper analyzes the importance of legal property documents in providing tenure security, enhancing agricultural investment incentives and easing access to credit. While theory predicts that better property rights on land can increase investment through increased security, enhanced trade opportunities and increased collateral value of land, the presence and size of these effects depend crucially on whether those rights are properly enforced. In Nicaragua, a troubled history of land expropriation and invasion has undermined the credibility of the legal property regime. The variation in legal ownership status due to a land titling and regularization programme is studied to identify the effects of legal ownership documents. Possession of a registered document is found to increase the probability of carrying out land-attached investments by 35%. No difference is found in the effect of public deeds and agrarian reform titles provided they are both registered and we find no strong evidence of a credit supply link, thus suggesting security of tenure as the channel through which formal land ownership has an effect on investment.

Suggested Citation

  • de Laiglesia, Juan R., 2005. "Investment and credit effects of land titling and registration:," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Kiel 2005 10, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:gdec05:3483
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    Cited by:

    1. Rohini Pande & Christopher Udry, 2005. "Institutions and Development:A View from Below," Working Papers 928, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    2. James Fenske, 2010. "L’Étranger: Status, Property Rights, and Investment Incentives in Côte d’Ivoire," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 86(4), pages 621-644.
    3. Misha Saleem, 2011. "The Effect of Ownership Rights on Urban Households' Access to Credit in Lahore," Lahore Journal of Economics, Department of Economics, The Lahore School of Economics, vol. 16(2), pages 111-139, Jul-Dec.
    4. Lawrence King & Osvaldo Gómez Martínez, 2010. "Property Rights Reform and Development: A Critique of the Cross-National Regression Literature," Working Papers wp216, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    5. Steven Lawry & Cyrus Samii & Ruth Hall & Aaron Leopold & Donna Hornby & Farai Mtero, 2014. "The Impact of Land Property Rights Interventions on Investment and Agricultural Productivity in Developing Countries: a Systematic Review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(1), pages 1-104.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • K11 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Property Law

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