Impact of Land Certification on Land Rental Market Participation in Tigray Region, Northern Ethiopia

Holden, Stein T. and Deininger, Klaus and Ghebru, Hosaena (2007): Impact of Land Certification on Land Rental Market Participation in Tigray Region, Northern Ethiopia.

Abstract

There is a renewed interest in whether land reforms can contribute to market development in Africa and whether land reforms can be pro-poor. This paper uses unique household panel data from Tigray region in Ethiopia to assess the impact of the 1998 low-cost land registration and certification reform on land rental market participation over a period of eight years after the reform, using random effects probit and tobit panel data models for land leased out and leased in, while correcting for unobservable heterogeneity and endogeneity of having certificate. The analysis revealed that the land reform contributed to increased land rental market participation. Female-headed households became more willing to rent out land and making land available for more efficient producers. Average areas leased out and leased in increased after certification. The land rental market remained characterised with significant and non-convex transaction costs also after the reform as evidenced by significant state dependence, a low response to own holding size and a high share of non-participation in the land market, leaving room for further improvement.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Institution: Norwegian University of Life Sciences
• Language: English
• Keywords: Land certification; land rental market; panel data analysis; unobserved heterogeneity; household response; female-headed households
• Subjects: Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q1 - Agriculture > Q15 - Land Ownership and Tenure ; Land Reform ; Land Use ; Irrigation ; Agriculture and Environment; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q2 - Renewable Resources and Conservation > Q24 - Land; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O13 - Agriculture ; Natural Resources ; Energy ; Environment ; Other Primary Products

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