Land conservation and tenure security in Kenya: Boserup's hypothesis revisited

Land conservation technologies used by farmers are known to play an important role in improving farm incomes and household welfare in the long run. For this reason substantial investments have been made in research to improve agricultural technologies in various parts of the world, from the development of new crop varieties to new practices of land management. This paper explores the impact of land rights among other factors on adoption of soil and water conservation practices. The study further tests for Boserup's hypothesis (correlation between population density, land conservation and property rights) using panel survey data collected from farming households. The key findings of the paper are that property right regimes and population density affect both the decision to conserve land as well as the type of conservation practices used by farmers. The results further suggest a positive correlation between land tenure security and population density, thus supporting Boserup's hypothesis. The findings call for pursuit of both short-term and long-term policy measures that offer incentives for land conservation through government initiatives and participation of local communities.     

Basic Needs, Property Rights and Degradation Of Commons

A major problem in many developing countries is the degradation of commons. This degradation has occurred on account of the lack of fulfilment of the basic needs of the poor, free riding and ill–defined property rights. As these goods are essential for the survival of these people, they have to access these items from commons. This results in regular raids to common land for resources and also to private houses (for example, in New Delhi) which are not guarded for water. A variant of the agricultural household model is used to analyse the above problem. Several propositions are established and it is demonstrated that degradation can occur at both a low and high price of basic needs. This result has important policy implications as it demonstrates that land or common degradation cannot be solved by just using the price system. Properly defined property rights and provision of basic goods in kind may resolve the problem of degradation of commons.     

Agricultural intensification, irrigation and the environment in South Asia: Issues and policy options

High population pressure and the rapid pace of human activity including urbanization, industrialization and other economic activities have led to a dwindling supply of arable land per capita and a process of agricultural intensification in South Asia. While this process has significantly increased food production to feed the growing population, it has also entailed considerable damage to the physical environment, including degradation and depletion of natural resources and unsustainable use of land and water resources. This paper employs the analytical tools of economic theory, environmental and ecological economics to model the impact of irrigation in South Asia. It underscores the need for an eclectic approach to policy responses stemming from private and common property rights theories, externality theory and sustainability theory with a view to environmentalizing agricultural development.     

COMMON PROPERTY AS AN INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSE TO ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABILITY

Relationships between the potential productivity of land and property rights generally are couched in terms of measures of central tendency or means. However, risk or variance as a measure of uncertainty also is critical in relating property rights and organizational arrangements developed within various property regimes. Meteorological and hydrological research results support the appropriateness of risk-spreading property regimes, especially in semi-arid and arid lands. Spatial diversification models indicate that common property regimes can be a rational response to environmental variability. Efforts by the public sector to privatize and fence grazing lands on the extensive margin may have limited appeal to pastoralists throughout the world .     

地权稳定性、土地流转与农地资源持续利用

土地使用权的稳定性、土地流转等农地产权制度对农地资源的影响一直是农村经济改革和农地制度绩效评价中备受关注的问题之一。本文通过建立土壤肥力变化的社会经济及政策影响因素模型 ,利用 6省 1 5县市 1 80个样本地块在 2 0世纪 80年代初期和 2 0 0 0年的土壤实验数据 ,结合同时期这些样本地块所在生产小组的社会经济调查数据 ,对于地权稳定性、农户间非正式土地流转等社会经济及政策因素如何影响农地土壤的可持续生产能力进行了实证分析。模型估计结果表明 :稳定的土地使用权有助于改善农地土壤的长期肥力 ;农户之间的非正式土地流转容易造成农地土壤长期肥力的衰退 ,但对土壤的短期肥力无显著影响 ;同时 ,农村劳动力机会成本提高并没有引起农地土壤肥力的损耗     

Property rights on First Nations reserve land

This paper examines the economic effects of existing private property rights on First Nations reserves. We focus on three regimes of land tenure: lawful possession, designated land and permits. These land regimes have been used to create individual landholdings and grant secure and transferable rights of use of reserve land. Using confidential census microdata and rich administrative data, we find evidence of a positive relationship between the use of these tenure regimes and homeownership rates, housing conditions and band's public spending. We also observe a positive relationship with average income. However, this last result is driven by the inflow of a non-Indigenous population not by improvements in Indigenous households’ income or on-reserve employment. Our findings thus suggest that while reforms to individual property rights on reserve have some positive effects, their scope remains limited and they are unlikely to constitute a transformative tool to alleviate poverty on reserve.     

Usury,Market Power and Poverty Traps: A Study of Rural Credit in 1930s’ China

This paper studies the cross-regional variation of interest rates in China in the 1930s. Based on county-level data from the Buck (1941) rural surveys, we examine factors that may have influenced rural interest rates in pre-1949 China. Since the quality of institutions that define property rights and facilitate contract enforcement is important for such transactions as land tenancy arrangements, we treat land tenancy rate (or percentage of owner-farmers) as a proxy for institutional quality. Contrary to the popular belief among historians and economists that usury or high interest rates caused persistent poverty, we find that while the monopoly-exploitation hypothesis has little explanatory power, a region’s institutional quality and income level are persistent and significant determinants of interest rates. Thus, poverty is a key driver of high rates of interest. Economic growth and the development of market institutions are crucial for lowering high interest rates and combating usury.     

路径依赖的作用:家庭联产承包责任制的建立与演进

人地比例、耕作技术、土地产权制度之间的互动循环导致了中国历史时期土地产权制度演进中路径依赖的形成。中国目前人口与资源（土地）之间的紧张关系就是历史时期土地产权制度演进的结果，这一约束条件决定了中国土地产权制度只能是朝着更加周密细致地保证农民土地长期使用权与收益权的方向演进。从公社一级到三级所有、大队为基础，到三级所有、队为基础，再到家庭联产承包责任制的建立，直至承包期限由短期变为长期，由15年变为30年。这一步步的演进都是朝着保证农民土地长期使用权与收益权的方向回归，显现出制度变迁过程中路径依赖的作用。由于历史时期土地产权制度演进的影响，家庭联产承包责任制完善的方向应该是土地国家终级所有的前提下，强化农民现有土地长期使用权，并通过法律手段保证土地使用权的转让。     

复杂产权论和有效产权论-中国地权变迁的一个分析框架

本文将中国近60年的地权变迁过程分为合作化、家庭联产承包和土地规模流转三个阶段加以回顾,考察了其中发生的产权权能细分、主体身份变化、市场范围扩展和经济绩效变动等几个特征性事实,并以一个基于Spence-Dixit-Stigliz框架的模型刻画了从传统自给性农业向现代商业化农业转型过程中的地权细分和流转交易,从而为复杂产权理论提供了一个经验证据,并揭示出产权细分是复杂产权实际实施的一个重要途径,因而不存在绝对有效的产权安排,只能在状态依存的互动过程中寻求相对有效的产权结构。     

控制权与激励的冲突——兼对股权激励有效性的实证分析

控制权配置与激励安排是组织治理中的两个重要工具,本文首先从组织中委托人私人收益角度分析委托人控制权与代理人激励之间可能的冲突,进而通过上市公司数据对这一冲突关系进行经验检验。我们的研究发现,中国上市公司大股东控制权与管理层股权激励之间存在显著的冲突,而且这种冲突与股权性质、公司成长速度相关。民营控股公司中的冲突程度显著弱于其他类型公司,国资委控股公司中的冲突显著强于其他类型公司;而公司成长速度越快,大股东控制权与管理层激励之间的冲突越强。本文的研究结果能够很好地解释中国上市国有企业中股权激励效果不显著、甚至出现负效应的经验现象,并由此提出相应的政策建议。     

The economic relevance of sustainable agroforestry practices — An empirical analysis from Tanzania

This paper investigates the economic relevance of sustainable behavior of agroforestry practices for smallholders using the example of firewood exploitation in rural Tanzania. Three questions are addressed: (1) To what extent do households behave sustainably regarding firewood extraction from agroforestry? (2) Which factors determine the likelihood of households practicing sustainable agroforestry? (3) Are sustainably behaving households better off in terms of income compared to households practicing unsustainable agroforestry? The analysis is based on cross-sectional data of 314 households. A sustainability indicator shows that the share of sustainable households varies between 14 and 41% depending on the underlying wood growth rate. The results of the logistic regression indicate that property rights regarding the ownership of agricultural land and environmental awareness increase the likelihood of sustainable firewood extraction. Empirical evidence from the quantile regression reveals that poorest households generate higher income if they extract firewood unsustainably. The opposite is true for households of upper income percentiles. Thus, the poor are likely to increase environmental degradation to generate more income causing a ‘downward spiral’ of the poverty–environment trap resulting in income losses in the long run. Households with a per capita income of 524 TZS or more manage their tree stocks sustainably.     

Factors Determining Citizen’s Attitudes Towards Agri-Environmental Property Rights

The purpose of this paper is to contribute further insights into individuals’ agri-environmental attitudes. In particular, the empirical analysis focuses on how citizens think agri-environmental property rights should be assigned. This has been done by surveying how individuals consider the environmental policy should promote the implementation of a group of agri-environmental measures, allowing us to examine the determinants of individuals’ opinions about this matter. Results indicate that higher level of income and education support the implementation of obligatory agri-environmental measures with no financial support (property rights should rest on society) except for measures to improve public access to land for leisure activities and ecological farming which are seen more of the voluntary kind (property rights should rest on farmers). Additionally, rural residency has strong significant effect on agri-environmental attitudes as rural residents are more likely to support the implementation of voluntary (with/without financial support) agri-environmental measures. On the whole, this research proves to be a valuable tool to identify factors determining individuals’ attitudes towards agri-environmental property rights which can certainly help policymakers to provide customized, better response to social demands on this matter.     

Property rights for the poor: Effects of land titling

Secure property rights are considered a key determinant of economic development. The evaluation of the causal effects of property rights, however, is a difficult task as their allocation is typically endogenous. To overcome this identification problem, we exploit a natural experiment in the allocation of land titles. In 1981, squatters occupied a piece of land in a poor suburban area of Buenos Aires. In 1984, a law was passed expropriating the former owners' land to entitle the occupants. Some original owners accepted the government compensation, while others disputed the compensation payment in the slow Argentine courts. These different decisions by the former owners generated an exogenous allocation of property rights across squatters. Using data from two surveys performed in 2003 and 2007, we find that entitled families substantially increased housing investment, reduced household size, and enhanced the education of their children relative to the control group. These effects, however, did not take place through improvements in access to credit. Our results suggest that land titling can be an important tool for poverty reduction, albeit not through the shortcut of credit access, but through the slow channel of increased physical and human capital investment, which should help to reduce poverty in future generations.     

农民的土地产权稳定性意愿及其对土地产权稳定性的影响

定性分析了农民土地产权稳定性意愿对土地产权稳定性的可能影响,并利用抽样调查的数据对农民土地产权稳定性意愿与土地产权稳定性之间的关系进行了定量分析。结果揭示,在调查区域,农民的土地产权稳定性意愿并未得到尊重,即农民意愿对土地产权稳定性未能发挥显著影响。     

Property rights imperfections and asset allocation: Co-ownership in Bulgaria

This paper analyzes how imperfections of property rights affect households’ allocation of assets using micro-survey data from Bulgaria. Co-ownership of assets is widespread in many countries due to inheritance. Central and Eastern Europe offers an interesting natural experiment to assess the effects of this type of property rights imperfection because of the asset restitution process in the 1990s. In Bulgaria, where co-ownership is very prominent and land is strongly fragmented, the land reform and inheritance legislation allows identifying the impact of co-ownership by taking advantage of a discontinuity created by a minimum plot size law. We find that land in co-ownership is more likely to be used by less efficient farm organizations or to be left abandoned, and that it is related to significant welfare losses. The paper hence provides evidence of sub-optimal land allocation following a privatization that established formal but imperfect property rights.     

产权信念及其对公平偏好与自利偏好的挤出

传统经济理论将产权作为经济绩效的外生变量,但是人类社会的演化路径表明产权是内生于人类族群的共同信念,它与内置于人类心智的公平偏好交互作用影响个体的决策行为。文章运用比较制度实验方法针对不同来源的产权考察其认同信念及其对公平偏好的影响。实验发现,产权不仅导致提议者对回应者和接受者有产权认同信念,也导致提议者的自利偏好和回应者的公平偏好被挤出;通过对利他偏好、策略行为和第三方评价的分离,测度了产权信念;提议者没有强烈的公平偏好动机,而是通过策略行为来最大化自身利益。     

Does the transfer of farmland use rights increase farmers’ long-term intention to work in cities?

This study investigates how the transfer of rural land contract management rights in China has influenced the choice of rural workers to work in cities in the long run. Using data from the Rural Household Survey and Migrant Household Survey from the China Household Income Project in 2007, 2008 and 2013, we find that rural land transfers and the subsequent human capital effect are found to play important roles in farmers’ decision to give up agricultural work and relocate to work in urban areas. Our findings indicate that the Chinese government should accelerate the implementation of policies that promote the separation of ownership rights, contracting rights and management rights of contracted land and continuously improve the rural land property rights system.     

The role of property rights in determining the environmental quality-income relationship

This paper examines the role of property rights in shaping the relationship between environmental quality and income. It develops an analytical framework that integrates the effects of property rights evolution, natural resource attributes, agent characteristics, and production technology on the environment-income relationship. The substantive strength of this framework lies in its ability to rationalize a wide range of environment-income relationships. The model shows that the U-shaped environment-income relationship, which is consistent with the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, can arise only under specific model conditions. Thus the framework provides an additional explanation for non-universality of EKC. We provide evidence in support of our framework from case studies of various natural resources.     

工业化、土地市场和农业投资

本文扩展了农地产权方面的经验研究文献,将转让权纳入分析之中。本文的理论模型证明,在不完全劳动力市场下,随着工业化的深入,残缺的转让权将导致农户对土地投资的后悔效应。本文利用面板数据的计量分析在很大程度上证明了后悔效应的存在。     

转型深化期中国农村土地产权结构考察与思考——基于2005年和2011年中国17省调查的实证分析

现代产权理论指出,完整的产权应包括专有的使用权、收益的独占权和自由的交易权.中国农地产权不明晰、不稳定、不完整对于农村发展的负外部性已经成为国内学界共识.本文基于中国人民大学土地管理系与美国农村发展研究所(RDI)于2005年和2011年共同组织的17省农村土地权利情况调查所取得的一手数据,通过实证分析解构农地产权,并在此基础上,对不同省份、不同地域的农地产权绩效进行量化比较,并分析2005-2011年农地产权的改进程度,以期为中国农村土地产权绩效的优化提供参考.