Impacts of Land Certification on Tenure Security, Investment, and Land Markets: Evidence from Ethiopia

Abstract:     
Although early attempts at land titling in Africa were often unsuccessful, the need to secure rights in view of increased demand for land, options for registration of a continuum of individual or communal rights under new laws, and the scope for reducing costs by combining information technology with participatory methods have led to renewed interest. This paper uses a difference-in-difference approach to assess economic impacts of a low-cost registration program in Ethiopia that, over 5 years, covered some 20 million parcels. Despite policy constraints, the program increased tenure security, land-related investment, and rental market participation and yielded benefits significantly above the cost of implementation.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 33

Keywords: Environmental Economics & Policies, Urban Housing, Climate Change, Common Property Resource Development, Rural Land Policies for Poverty Reduction

working papers series