Secure property rights and development: Economic growth and household welfare (original) (raw)

Influences on the Strength of Property Rights

Pioneering work by de Soto has demonstrated the importance of secure property rights for economic development. This has led to a number of projects supported by the World Bank and donor agencies in emerging, transitional and developing economies designed to create secure property rights through titling and land registration. There is, however, still considerable uncertainty about the conditions needed for improvement in security of tenure. In particular there is a question as to whether tenure security interventions can be effective if pursued in isolation from other policy initiatives, for example, aimed at changing the business environment or the ethos of public service. This paper takes four measures of the security of property rights produced by the Heritage Foundation, the World Economic Forum, Bertelsmann Stiftung, and USAID and examines the factors which are associated with greater security. It focuses on the countries included in the USAID study and those in the Bertelsmann Transformation Index in order to exclude the richer countries which generally have a relatively high level of security of property rights as it is considered that their presence in a sample could have a distorting effect. The paper includes a critique of the sources of property rights data. It examines the extent to which secure property rights are associated with factors such as the strength of the legal system, corruption and the efficiency of government, the quality of the governance of a country, the quality of corporate governance, the degree of development of the business environment, the quality of education, healthcare and infrastructure, the strength of the financial system, gender equality, and environmental stress. TS09L -Land Administration and Sustainable Development, 5583 Richard Grover & Christine Grover Influences on the Strength of Property Rights FIG Working Week 2012 Knowing to manage the territory, protect the environment, evaluate the cultural heritage Rome,

"Myths of Property Rights"

Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law, 2008

Land titling has been pronwted as the key to broad-based sustainable growth in many developing countries. Proponents claim titling automatically leads to increased security of ownership, greater credit, investment and productivity, protection from fraud, and other benefits. Titles can make people quit planting coca in the jungles of Peru or prevent a civil war. However, empirical studies do not sustain these conclusions. The impact of land titling depends on many local factors such as custom, geography, resources, law, and history. A closer examination of empirical studies reveals a complex and nuanced reality with conditional or contingent impacts on economic growth. Indeed, property formalization without regard to these factors may be detrimental to historically disadvantaged groups. To be sure, titling is a highly important ingredient to a nwre general strategy for development. New technologies are dramatically lowering survey costs, making titling nwre affordable. But the true impact of titling should not be overstated, nor should other factors be ignored. Such an overemphasis would give policymakers unrealistic expectations about the way in which titling dtJes impact on broadly based economic growth.

LEGITIMATE LAND TENURE AND PROPERTY RIGHTS: FOSTERING COMPLIANCE AND DEVELOPMENT OUTCOMES

Growing populations and economic change resulting from globalisation and climate change are increasing pressure on land, particularly in urbanising countries. This exposes many of those occupying and using land, particularly the poor and women, to risks resulting from tenure insecurity. Customary practices in land management are giving way to market-based statutory systems of land tenure. This development has been accompanied by a significant increase in demand for land for investment; in some countries this has caused land users to lose rights and access to their land and other natural resources. Altogether, these trends have presented governments with significant challenges to effectively govern land tenure and property rights in a way that is socially acceptable and legitimate, and at the same time delivers inclusive economic development. This rapid evidence assessment (REA) seeks to address the question of which policies and interventions or approaches have been successful in fostering compliance with legitimate land tenure rights and what impact these strategies have had on development outcomes. The research reviewed for this paper shows that there is evidence that a range of strategies employed by government, civil society and local communities have improved tenure security and property rights. There is also some evidence that these strategies have resulted in some immediate or short-term outcomes, i.e. improved living conditions for vulnerable groups such as women. However, there is limited and mixed evidence that strategies have had an impact on development outcomes. Many of the examples that were found to have fostered compliance have not been in place long enough for evidence of positive outcomes on poverty reduction, gender equity, and access to formal credit, or public services to emerge and manifest themselves.

Property Rights and Economic Growth

2013

s downloaded 86 50* 19 39 44 Titles forward/ backwards searched 9 7 2 4 0 Full titles downloaded from Scopus 47 43 21 40 39 2.2 Derivation of the evidence base In this section, we discuss the potential impact of the search strategy and evidence quality assessment criteria in deriving the evidence base that underpins the key finding of the Briefing Papers. 2.2.1 Issues raised by the search strategy Although the strategy was designed to do a wide-ranging search and include as many relevant studies as possible, the results of the search process highlighted some potential bias towards particular types of studies and evidence, namely:

Women's Legal Rights and Gender Gaps in Property Ownership in Developing Countries

2020

Women's property ownership matters for their well-being and agency; it can also advance economic prosperity and promote the human development of future generations. Yet, until recently, lack of data has constrained researchers from gaining a comprehensive overview of gender differences in property ownership in the developing world. Using Demographic and Health Survey data from 41 developing countries, this paper seeks to fill this gap, by investigating the extent of gender gaps in the incidence of property ownership (land and housing) and the factors associated with these gaps, focusing on the role of legal systems. The study finds that there is substantial variation in gender gaps across countries, but in almost all countries men are more likely to own property than women. Within countries, gender gaps are most pronounced for groups that are already disadvantaged, that is, the rural population and the poorest quintile. The disadvantage in property ownership experienced by women...