Last updated on May 16, 2013
Some economists argue that ensuring people have titles to their land can ensure a feeling of security and boost production. … The greatest proponent of the argument is Hernando de Soto, a development economist who has managed to win praise from the likes of Bill Clinton and the libertarian Cato Institute.
There is plenty of evidence that land rights are connected to productivity, but new research out of Madagascar shows that it is not always the case.
Duke University researcher Marc F. Bellemare tested whether the land rights component of a $100 million Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact with the government of Madagascar. He found that the provision of formal land rights, meaning land titles, had not measurable impact on productivity when comparing farmers that did and did not benefit from the MCC compact.
Holding a land title is not sufficient if structures are not in place to enforce land ownership and dole it out.
From a very nice article by Tom Murphy on Humanosphere, which discusses the policy implications of my forthcoming Land Economics article on land rights in Madagascar.
The only correction I would like to make to the article is that the analysis is prospective, meaning that I use data that precedes the MCC’s land titling program. Put differently, I do not evaluate the impact of the MCC’s land titling program and, as far as I can tell, no one has.
Otherwise, the article is spot on: Having a piece of paper that declares you are the owner of a parcel of land does not necessarily make it so. The effectiveness of land titles is predicated on there being an authority to enforce the land rights that supposedly flow from those titles.