Trust or Property Rights? Can Trusted Relationships Substitute for Costly Land Registration in West African Cities?

The paper studies the market failures associated with land tenure insecurity and information asymmetry in an urban land use model, and analyzes households' responses to mitigate tenure insecurity. When buyers and sellers of land plots can pair...

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Main Authors:	Letrouit, Lucie, Selod, Harris
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2020
Subjects:	LAND MARKET PROPERTY RIGHTS INFORMATION ASSYMETRY LAND USE LAND REGISTRATION ETHNIC KINSHIP INFORMAL LAND USE LAND TENURE INSECURITY
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/200241593532750315/Trust-or-Property-Rights-Can-Trusted-Relationships-Substitute-for-Costly-Land-Registration-in-West-African-Cities http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34025

id	okr-10986-34025
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-340252022-09-20T00:13:39Z Trust or Property Rights? Can Trusted Relationships Substitute for Costly Land Registration in West African Cities? Letrouit, Lucie Selod, Harris LAND MARKET PROPERTY RIGHTS INFORMATION ASSYMETRY LAND USE LAND REGISTRATION ETHNIC KINSHIP INFORMAL LAND USE LAND TENURE INSECURITY The paper studies the market failures associated with land tenure insecurity and information asymmetry in an urban land use model, and analyzes households' responses to mitigate tenure insecurity. When buyers and sellers of land plots can pair along trusted kinship lines whereby deception (the non-disclosure of competing claims on a land plot to a buyer) is socially penalized, information asymmetry is attenuated, but overall participation in the land market is reduced. Alternatively, when owners can make land plots secure by paying to register them in a cadaster, both information asymmetry and tenure insecurity are reduced, but the registration cost limits land market participation at the periphery of the city. The paper then compares the overall surpluses under these trust and registration models and under a hybrid version of the model that reflects the context of today's West African cities where both registration and trusted relationships are simultaneously available to residents. The analysis highlights the substitutability of trusted relationships to costly registration and predicts the gradual evolution of economies towards the socially preferable registration system if registration costs can be sufficiently reduced. 2020-07-06T16:01:38Z 2020-07-06T16:01:38Z 2020-06 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/200241593532750315/Trust-or-Property-Rights-Can-Trusted-Relationships-Substitute-for-Costly-Land-Registration-in-West-African-Cities http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34025 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9310 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa West Africa
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	LAND MARKET PROPERTY RIGHTS INFORMATION ASSYMETRY LAND USE LAND REGISTRATION ETHNIC KINSHIP INFORMAL LAND USE LAND TENURE INSECURITY
spellingShingle	LAND MARKET PROPERTY RIGHTS INFORMATION ASSYMETRY LAND USE LAND REGISTRATION ETHNIC KINSHIP INFORMAL LAND USE LAND TENURE INSECURITY Letrouit, Lucie Selod, Harris Trust or Property Rights? Can Trusted Relationships Substitute for Costly Land Registration in West African Cities?
geographic_facet	Africa West Africa
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9310
description	The paper studies the market failures associated with land tenure insecurity and information asymmetry in an urban land use model, and analyzes households' responses to mitigate tenure insecurity. When buyers and sellers of land plots can pair along trusted kinship lines whereby deception (the non-disclosure of competing claims on a land plot to a buyer) is socially penalized, information asymmetry is attenuated, but overall participation in the land market is reduced. Alternatively, when owners can make land plots secure by paying to register them in a cadaster, both information asymmetry and tenure insecurity are reduced, but the registration cost limits land market participation at the periphery of the city. The paper then compares the overall surpluses under these trust and registration models and under a hybrid version of the model that reflects the context of today's West African cities where both registration and trusted relationships are simultaneously available to residents. The analysis highlights the substitutability of trusted relationships to costly registration and predicts the gradual evolution of economies towards the socially preferable registration system if registration costs can be sufficiently reduced.
format	Working Paper
author	Letrouit, Lucie Selod, Harris
author_facet	Letrouit, Lucie Selod, Harris
author_sort	Letrouit, Lucie
title	Trust or Property Rights? Can Trusted Relationships Substitute for Costly Land Registration in West African Cities?
title_short	Trust or Property Rights? Can Trusted Relationships Substitute for Costly Land Registration in West African Cities?
title_full	Trust or Property Rights? Can Trusted Relationships Substitute for Costly Land Registration in West African Cities?
title_fullStr	Trust or Property Rights? Can Trusted Relationships Substitute for Costly Land Registration in West African Cities?
title_full_unstemmed	Trust or Property Rights? Can Trusted Relationships Substitute for Costly Land Registration in West African Cities?
title_sort	trust or property rights? can trusted relationships substitute for costly land registration in west african cities?
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2020
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/200241593532750315/Trust-or-Property-Rights-Can-Trusted-Relationships-Substitute-for-Costly-Land-Registration-in-West-African-Cities http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34025
_version_	1764480031450464256

Trust or Property Rights? Can Trusted Relationships Substitute for Costly Land Registration in West African Cities?

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