How Urban Land Titling and Registry Reform Affect Land and Credit Markets : Evidence from Lesotho
Using spatial fixed effects and time-varying controls, this paper draws on complete registry data for 1981–2019, supplemented by satellite imagery, to analyze impacts of urban land titling for some 40,000 grid cells in Lesotho. Beyond confirming th...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2022
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099441205162241674/IDU09da259ca0f0ed045ad0ba7b0af83800a9bf4 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37458 |
| Summary: | Using spatial fixed effects and
time-varying controls, this paper draws on complete registry
data for 1981–2019, supplemented by satellite imagery, to
analyze impacts of urban land titling for some 40,000 grid
cells in Lesotho. Beyond confirming the short-term impacts
on female co-ownership and investment, previously reported,
the paper documents medium-term impacts on land sale and
mortgage market activity and women’s participation in these
markets. Although titling was instrumental in ensuring the
effectiveness of an earlier legal reform that allowed women
to be co-owners of land, the credit and land market effects
are due not to titling but to changes in policy to reduce
the transaction cost of registering land that took effect
just before titling started. Downward shifts in the time
required to register transactions support this
interpretation. The paper concludes by discussing what the
evidence implies for design and evaluation of property
registration programs. |
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