Delinking Land Rights from Land Use: Certification and Migration in Mexico

Abstract

Well-defined and secure property rights over land have long been recognized as essential for economic development (Demsetz 1967;North and Thomas 1973;De Soto 2000). There are, however, different ways in which these rights can be established. Contrary to the norm in developed countries where rights are established by land titles, in many developing countries they are established by contingent use of the land. In this case, security of access requires evidence of productive use by the occupant himself, with the implication that leaving the land idle or letting it to others creates a substantial risk of loss of rights. This can be inefficient for two reasons. First, it imposes conditions on the amount of labor used on the land by requiring that it be kept in production at an accepted standard of use, ignoring the return to labor in alternative activities. Second, the common prohibition to land transactions prevents land from being reallocated from less productive to more productive users. With a focus on increasing the efficiency of land use, land certification and titling programs that remove constraints on land use and allow land transactions have been widely sponsored by national governments and international development agencies (Heath 1990).

Sources of Economic Growth in Zambia, 1970–2013: A Growth Accounting Approach

“…One factor that could be slowing down structural transformation is the land rights and tenure system in rural Zambia where 93% of the land is customary land without a title for the smallholder farmers who use it (Adams 2003). This tends to affect the reallocation of labor from agriculture to other sectors (De Janvry et al 2015). Service seems to be the only sector performing well on contribution and productivity measures.…”

“…De Janvry et al (2015) show that the key constraint imposed by insecure property rights is the requirement of continued presence and cultivation even when one is not productive. These secure lands would increase the efficiency of labor allocation by allowing and inducing less productive farmers to migrate into other sectors of the economy leaving more productive farmers to cultivate more land.…”

Sources of Economic Growth in Zambia, 1970-2013: A Growth Accounting Approach

“…One factor that could be slowing down structural transformation is the land rights and tenure system in rural Zambia where 93% of the land is under customary land without title for the smallholder farmers who use it (Adam, 2003 [52]). This tends to affect the reallocation of labour from agriculture to other sectors (de Janvry et al, 2015 [53]). Service seems to be the only sector performing well on contribution and productivity measures.…”

Public Expenditures, Impact Evaluations and Agricultural Productivity: Summary of the Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean

“…The results show positive effects on the use of specific technologies in both chains; however, the only significant impact attributed to the PBS activity was on the average net productive income of beneficiaries in the dairy value chain (a positive average difference of USD 1,849 relative to non-beneficiaries). 39 In…”

“…The first agreement, as well as the one signed with Nicaragua and Honduras, was primarily focused on infrastructure development. 39 The implementing parties defined income at the producer level, versus household level, as a key economic outcome of interest.…”