Do local land institutions make a dime's worth of a difference in rural land markets? Evidence from Malawi

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (11) ◽  
pp. 1055-1072
Author(s):  
Greenwell Collins Matchaya
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Land Ownership ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Land Markets ◽  
Rural Land ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Land Registration ◽  
Traditional System ◽  
Context Specific

Purpose – It has been argued that traditional land transfer systems provide disincentives for farmers to trade their land, thus reducing land availability and depressing productivity. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of land rentals under customary land ownership in matrilineal and patrilineal traditions and under formal land registration in the rural areas of Malawi. Design/methodology/approach – Using new data collected from around 100 households farming around 200 parcels in three regions of Malawi, a number of models are estimated with ordinary least squares. Findings – The paper finds some evidence that some variables within the traditional system of land holding are crucial for land rentals. However, when land titles are used as a proxy for security of tenure, none of the relationships commonly hypothesized between land ownership security and land lease are corroborated. Land registration is found to have no significant effects on land and rentals. Social implications – These results put into question the potency of sole land registration as a means of enhancing land market activities for rural masses in Malawi. Originality/value – The uniqueness of this paper rests in it its use of context-specific constructs of land ownership security. Moreover the tested hypotheses emerge from a theoretical model that is unique to the literature on rural land markets and land tenure.

Women, Land Tenure Dynamics and Land Sales in Rural Areas. The Case of Syukula Village, Tanzania

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Rosemarie N. Mwaipopo
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Land Ownership ◽  
Ecological Perspective ◽  
Social Analysis ◽  
Rural Land ◽  
Tenure Security ◽  
Significant Aspect ◽  
Women’S Perceptions ◽  
Ownership Rights

Abstract Women’s engagement in rural land sales has been a significant aspect of land tenure dynamics with varied implications to their livelihoods and wellbeing. However, the factors that influence women’s decisions and the modalities of such engagement have not received much attention in social analysis, specifically with regard to women’s perceptions, responses and actions towards land sales, especially in situations of land shortage. In the context where multiple and interacting factors are continuing to transform rural land tenure patterns, this article discusses the varied implications of recent land sales to women, with possible extension of their vulnerabilities, yet also re-invigorating women’s agency regarding land ownership rights. Using a feminist political-ecological perspective, this article shows how women act under constraining circumstances to transform gender relations and patterns of land ownership with varying outcomes to their wellbeing. The findings also suggest deeper interrogation on the capacities of grassroots structures obligated to oversee land tenure security for communities and upholding women’s rights of access to land.

The impact of investment on drinking water quality in rural China

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-269
Author(s):  
Ai Yue ◽  
Yaojiang Shi ◽  
Renfu Luo ◽  
Linxiu Zhang ◽  
Natalie Johnson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Tap Water ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Representative Data ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Impact

Purpose Although access to safe drinking water is one of the most important health-related infrastructure programs in the world, drinking water remains a large problem in China today, especially in rural areas. Despite increased government investment in water resource protection and management, there is still an absence of academic studies that are able to document what path the investment has taken and whether it has had any tangible impact. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of drinking water investment on drinking water in China. Design/methodology/approach The authors make use of nationally representative data from 2005 and 2012 to measure the impact of drinking water investment among 2,028 rural households in 101 villages across five provinces. Both ordinary least squares regression and probit regression are used to analyze the correlates and the impact of drinking water investment. Findings The authors demonstrate that water quality was likely a significant problem in 2004 but that China’s investment into drinking water appears to have resulted in initial improvements during the study period. The authors show that the most significant change came about in terms of hardware: villages that received more drinking water investment now have more piped tap water and more access to water treatment infrastructure (disinfecting and filtering facilities). High rates of rural resident satisfaction with drinking water suggest the effects of drinking water investment are being felt at the village level. Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study on drinking water investment over time in rural China using nationally representative data.

Map-Making and State-Building

2020 ◽  
pp. 32-55
Author(s):  
Christine Leuenberger ◽  
Izhak Schnell
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Weak Link ◽  
Land Rights ◽  
Land Ownership ◽  
State Building ◽  
Land Allocation ◽  
Natural Order ◽  
Land Registration ◽  
Land Tenure System

During the 20th century, surveying and mapping became vital tools for states; and colonizers used them to know and claim the land. The Mandate of Palestine’s Survey of Palestine surveyed parts of historic Palestine. Their modernist ethos to register the land converged with Zionist visionaries to make it their own. With the Hagannah looting the Survey of Palestine, the Israeli state-in-the making had access to cartographic material which helped them win the 1948 war and facilitated their statecraft. Post-1948, the Survey of Israel designed a new unified triangulation system, enabling the production of maps. The Israeli state also introduced a novel land tenure system. The seemingly imprecise land allocation practices common during the Ottoman Empire were pitted against a technocratic, modernist conception of land ownership, that, by virtue of its implementation, dispossessed many Arab landholders. However, enforcement of technocratic regulations depends on humans. Indeed, the process of land registration reveals how surveyors who would go to villages to ascertain land rights were the human and, at times, a weak link in doing so. Nevertheless, at the end of this process, 93% of land had become Israeli state land. The transformation in the land regime in Israel/Palestine thus attests to how new legal precepts in tandem with science and technology helped establish a modern, territorially defined state. While the Western scientific and legal paradigm enhanced the transfer of land, it also seemingly legitimized and depoliticized the new land regime, making it seem part of the natural order of things and an inevitable outcome of modernity.

scholarly journals When Tradition Meets Modernity in Land Registration: Evidence from Dagbon, Ghana

Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 416
Author(s):  
David Asante Edwin ◽  
Evam Kofi Glover ◽  
Edinam K. Glover
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Land Ownership ◽  
Registration System ◽  
Land Registration ◽  
Tenure System ◽  
Title Registration ◽  
Land Tenure System ◽  
Customary Land ◽  
And Control

Development practice over recent years in much of Africa prioritized formalization of land policies deemed to enhance better handling and use of land as an asset for social development. Following this trend, land reform policy in Ghana was based on a pluralistic legal system in which both the customary land tenure system and the statutory system of land ownership and control co-exist by law. The primary research question for this study was the following: What implications emerge when customary land tenure system and the statutory system of land ownership and control co-exist in law? The study discussed the prospects and challenges of land title registration and the meaning of the new organizing concept in land ownership and administration among the people of Dagbon in the northern region of Ghana. The principal aim of the study was to assess the challenges of the implementation of a modern land registration system over a deeply traditional one. A qualitative research methodology was used and included qualitative descriptive analysis. This descriptive-analytical study was carried out to investigate opinions on the implications of the merger and preferred options for redress of any systemic challenges. It employed Focused Group Discussions (FGDs) to supplement in-depth interviews. Interviews were conducted among 40 key participants within formal and informal institutions including officials from both the Land Commission and Town and Country Planning Departments. Purposeful sampling was employed, and an interview guide was developed and used for collecting the data. Data were analyzed using a thematic approach. The results showed that in this structural reform, the ‘allodial title’ holder was much more trusted for tenure security because of the traditional legitimacy of the King as the sole owner and controller of land. The title registration system therefore principally served the secondary purpose as additional security. The findings indicate that in the circumstance where the law was seen as pliable, the policy engendered blurred and confusing effects that deepened the sense of ambiguity and outcomes were sometimes contradictory. We argued that the crossroads presented challenges that were novel and engendered innovative thinking for more appropriate solutions. The study revealed that policy reforms must be tailor-made to the physical, social, cultural and economic settings.

Exploring the link between vulnerability of energy systems and social acceptance of renewable energy in two selected districts of Uganda

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1089-1122
Author(s):  
Stephen Korutaro Nkundabanyanga ◽  
Moses Muhwezi ◽  
Doreen Musimenta ◽  
Sharon Nuwasiima ◽  
Grace Muganga Najjemba
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Indirect Effects ◽  
Diffusion Of Innovations ◽  
Social Acceptance ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Ols Regression ◽  
Content Type

Purpose This paper aims to show preliminary evidence of the link between the perceived low vulnerability of vital energy systems (LVRE) and social acceptance of renewable energy (SARE) while treating environmental opportunities and threats (EOPT), renewable energy technological innovations (TECH) and business model innovations as possible antecedents. Design/methodology/approach The objectives are delivered through a survey of 199 households (potential and actual customers/suppliers of electric power and renewable energy gadgets in Kampala and Wakiso districts of Uganda), and the data obtained were analysed using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. Findings Both LVRE and EOPT, on their own, significantly predict SARE. TECH significantly mediate in the relation between EOPT and SARE. The highest form of SARE is market acceptance. Also, the current state of vulnerability of vital energy systems in the two Ugandan districts seems to espouse energy security as the real value of renewable energy. The study further finds that to deliver high SARE, there is a need to encompass potential user performance expectations of renewable energy technologies. Research implications/limitation Because the current results are from only two cities (districts) of Uganda and also based on a non-probability sample, generalizing them can be considered remote. In other words, it appears that more complex models need developing and testing in the future concerning LVRE and SARE. The present preliminary results are offered as a stimulus to such efforts. Well, it is expected, and, consistent with the diffusion of innovations theory (Rogers, 1995), that the population in Kampala and Wakiso districts are potential change agents (i.e. capable of influencing others in rural areas of Uganda). Originality/value The study estimates the direct and indirect effects to show how strongly TECH operate. Basing on OLS regression coefficients, the indirect effects are larger. Using the medgraph, we find probably for the first time, the adoption of technological innovation explains a significant part of the link between EOPT and SARE in the current study setting.

scholarly journals Rural Land Market, Livelihood and Welfare among Households in Oyo State, Southwest Nigeria

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Olubunmi O. Alawode
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Rural Households ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Living Standard ◽  
Land Market ◽  
Land Markets ◽  
Rural Land ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Crop Farming ◽  
Southwest Nigeria

With rapid population growth and resulting increased land fragmentation, landholding becomes smaller, negatively impacting on the living standard of rural households. Thus, the need to understand the potentials of land markets to improve rural households’ access to land through the adjustment of households’ landholding for livelihood activities, and its consequent effect on their welfare. This paper examined the relationship between rural land market, livelihood and welfare among households in Oyo state, Southwest Nigeria. Using a structured questionnaire, a survey was conducted on a sample of 200 respondents, who were selected through multistage sampling procedure. Descriptive statistics, Land Market Index (LMI), Tobit model and multiple regression analysis were used to analyse the primary data. Results show that majority (74.0%) of households were involved in crop farming with mean income of ₦53 833.33 (±26 784.560), which was relatively higher than livestock ₦31 567.08 (±20 897.47). The mean total monthly expenditure was ₦26 548.50 (±8945.5692). Identified land transaction methods include purchase (76.3%), lease (19.8%), and rent (3.9%). On the average, 97.0% of land held by households were acquired through market (LMI=0.97). Sex and household status had significant positive effects on the extent of households’ participation in land market at p<0.01. Also, LMI, crop farming and livestock farming had significant positive effect on households’ welfare. Obtaining land through market for livelihood activities promotes households’ welfare. Rural land market and livelihood activities have significant positive effects on the welfare of farmers. There is need for Government to facilitate formal land markets in rural areas.

Urbanization and carbon dioxide (CO2) emission nexus in the CEMAC countries

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chi Aloysius Ngong ◽  
Dimna Bih ◽  
Chinyere Onyejiaku ◽  
Josaphat Uchechukwu Joe Onwumere
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Emission ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Environmental Conservation ◽  
Tree Planting ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Causality Tests ◽  
The Relationship

PurposeThis study investigates the relationship between urbanization and carbon dioxide emission in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community from 1990 to 2019. The literature reveals that the relationship between urbanization and carbon dioxide emissions is still debatable and the existing findings are inconclusive.Design/methodology/approachCarbon dioxide is the regressand; while, urbanization, gross domestic product (GDP) and financial development (FD), rule of law (ROL) and government effectiveness (GEF) are the regressors. Johansen Fisher and Kao residual co-integration tests alongside the fully modified and dynamic ordinary least squares.FindingsThe results show a significant positive relationship between urbanization and carbon dioxide emissions. The causality tests results show that carbon dioxide granger causes urbanization, GDP and FD unit directionally.Research limitations/implicationsThe countries' governments should effectively improve their legal systems to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. Urbanization laws should be implemented to limit urbanization environmental deteriorating effects on carbon dioxide emissions. This occurs as the countries practiced unregulated urbanization which increases population's environmental impacts. The study recommends sustainable green urbanization policies for environmental conservation through tree planting and horticulture. Balance development in urban and rural areas is vital to decongest the urban cities' pressure in the states. The governments should motivate the private sector with rural investments captivating policies to limit rural urban migration.Originality/valueThe findings contribute value by supporting a positive link between urbanization and carbon dioxide emissions in the CEMAC zone. The causality tests findings confirm the view that carbon dioxide granger causes urbanization, GDP and FD unit directionally. This value addition is essential to the governments and policy makers to mitigate urbanization and carbon dioxide emissions in the CEMAC region.

Heterogeneous effects of rural land property mortgage loan program on income

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 695-711 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xi Yang ◽  
Jianchao Luo ◽  
Wenshou Yan
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Agricultural Productivity ◽  
Property Right ◽  
Mortgage Loan ◽  
Western China ◽  
Rural Land ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Loan Program

Purpose The innovative rural land property right mortgage loan program (RLPRMLP) provides a new channel for farmers to secure borrowing from microfinance institutions. Farmers’ land property right could be used as collateral to deal with moral hazard and adverse selection issues. The purpose of this paper is to document the effects of the RLPRMLP on households’ income using a unique data set from 1,279 households’ survey in Western China during 2012–2014. Design/methodology/approach At the first stage, the authors evaluate the impacts of RLPRMLP on households’ income to get the benchmark results when the authors control household’s observed and unobserved characteristics. To address the potential endogeneity issue resulting from the self-selection of farmers into the rural financial market, the authors apply the treatment effect model to identify the csusal effects of the innovative loan approach on a household’s income. Findings The empirical results favor the belief that participating in the RLPRMLP helps the households improve their total income (at least by 20.2 percent) and income per capita. This income-improving channel is only through agricultural sector, rather than through non-agricultural sector which potentially helps to deal with the inequality issue within poor regions. The results are robust when the authors control households’ characteristics, including observed and unobserved, and solve the endogeneity issue. Participating in the RLPRMLP could encourage farmers to invest more in the agricultural sector and increase agricultural productivity, which is the main mechanism of the income-improving effect of the RLPRMLP. Originality/value The innovative mortgage loan program provides a new channel for farmers to get loan. Land property right reform is being currently applied in rural China. Testing the effectiveness of combining land property right and microfinance loan method is necessary for the government policy making and development of rural areas. The findings are striking. The income improvement mechanism mainly works through agricultural sector, potentially because of the reform of land property, contributing to the increase of marginal product of land, i.e., the increase of agricultural productivity. These could help the development of microfinance theory, and the innovative loan method could be applied to other developing countries.

An analysis of the distribution and price determinants of Airbnb rentals in Malta

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Fearne
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Sharing Economy ◽  
Pricing Model ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Ols Regression ◽  
Content Type

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: to explore the distribution and pricing characteristics of Airbnb listings in Malta as at May 2019; and to develop a pricing model to determine the factors which have a statistically significant impact on price per night of listings. Design/methodology/approach A descriptive analysis of location and pricing of listings was undertaken via heat mapping techniques. A cross-sectional ordinary least squares (OLS) regression was run to determine the statistically significant variables. Findings Listings tend to cluster around not only in traditional tourist towns but also in rural areas which opens up new opportunities for tourist lodging. The Southern Harbour region was found to be the most expensive with the Gozo and Comino region being the least expensive. The coefficients of the pricing regression model were in line with a priori expectations. Research limitations/implications The study is based on a cross-sectional data set and thus fails to account for seasonal changes in prices. Likewise, the use of an OLS regression without incorporating quantile regression methods or spatial autocorrelation econometric techniques is another limitation of this study. Originality/value The paper is one of the few related to sharing economy rental platforms, particularly in Malta. It is also the first study in Malta to develop a comprehensive pricing model to determine what affects a listing’s price per night and the extent to which certain factors do so.

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