The Impact of Landownership Security: Theory and Evidence from Thailand

This article develops a model of farmers' land acquisition andinvestment decisions. The model clarifies the relation betweenland values, landownership security, and credit markets. Therisk of eviction on untitled lands and the advantages in accessto credit associated with titled land are shown to account forthe higher price of titled land. Furthermore, observed landprices are distorted when credit is priced below the opportunitycost of capital and the risk of eviction is positive. Thereforesocial benefit analysis of land titling cannot utilize landprices without correcting for these distortions. The articleoffers formulas for performing such corrections. Econometricestimates of the value of legal ownership in three provincesof Thailand using cross-section land price data show a statisticallysignificant effect of ownership security on land price. Theeconometric estimates of ownership security are combined withthe formulas generated by the model to yield estimates of thesocial benefit of land titling in the three provinces. The analysisimplies that granting full legal ownership to squatters canbe a socially beneficial policy in many provinces.     

ANIMAL HEALTH SERVICES: FINDING THE BALANCE BETWEEN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE DELIVERY

Growing fiscal deficits and greater awareness of the huge economiccost of often-inefficient government activities have renewedinterest in transferring the delivery of important servicesfrom the public to the private sector in developing countries.This article, drawn from a longer study, offers a frameworkfor determining the appropriate roles of the public and privatesectors in delivering animal health services, such as veterinarysurveillance, disease vector control, vaccination, clinicaltreatment of sick animals, inspection of livestock products,and veterinary research and extension. The profitability and therefore the supply of private veterinaryservices is governed by several factors arising from economiesof scale, such as the size of the livestock enterprises in thelocality, the nature of potential or actual diseases, and thetypes of animals raised in the production systems. Thus, inareas where private veterinary work is unprofitable or whereother types of market failure occur, economic or social concernsmay make some type of public intervention necessary. The transferof animal health services from the public to the private sectormust be done selectively, and government support may be neededto ensure the success of such transfers.      

REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY

The regulation of the telecommunications industry in South Africa is, by design, a complex matter, since it is mired with overlaps of mandates between the regulator, Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) and the Competition Commission on competition matters, coupled with vetoing powers of the Minister of Communications. The Harvard Business Model is employed in this article to show that there is a lack of coordinated effort between the regulator and its supporting structures. This then compromises efficiency as demanded by Parliament from state enacted bodies. Since ICASA is faced with dynamic economic and regulatory challenges, it is recommended that the regulator be fully resourced and granted regulatory as well as competitive authority in the telecommunications industry.     

THE IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION: THE TRAINING AND VISIT SYSTEM IN INDIA

This article reviews the rationale for public sector involvementin the dissemination of technological information to farmers,concluding that free markets do not fully satisfy farmers' informationneeds, and that government support is justified. Agriculturalextension is a principal way that governments can disseminateinformation, and the World Bank is financing many extensionprojects throughout the developing world. One specific approachto extension adopted in many Bank extension projects is theTraining and Visit (T&V) system. Data from a Bank-sponsoredsurvey in northwest India and from monitoring and evaluationreports issued by several Indian states are used in this articleto evaluate T&V extension operations and their impact. Extensionagents' interaction with farmers is found to be more intensiveand more significant as a source of information in areas coveredby T&V extension than in areas with a different extensionsystem. The yield levels of farmers whose main source of informationwas the T&V extension agent are also shown to be higher.In one case study, the incremental investment in T&V extensionis shown to be likely to generate at least a 15 to 20 percentrate of return.      

LAND RIGHTS SYSTEMS AND AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Links between land rights and agricultural development providea conceptual framework to analyze land rights systems in Sub-SaharanAfrica. The discussion demonstrates that land rights in Sub-SaharanAfrica evolved in response to changing political, social, andeconomic conditions, often the results of governmental interventionsthat may not have been conducive to efficiency or equity. The evidence dispels some popular misconceptions about landrights systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. There is increasing individualizationof ownership, and in many areas possession has always been individual.Even in areas where communal ownership has been imposed, cultivationand possession remain with individual households and an increasingrange of rights to land are appropriated by the individual household.Existing and indigenous systems are not inherently equitable.Land sales and mortgaging by individuals are observed frequentlyin many areas where such transactions are not recognized underthe formal legal system. The lesson from others parts of the world is that efficiencyultimately requires formal recognition of individual land rights.That stage has not been reached yet in many parts of Sub-SaharanAfrica, but in many other parts the justification for a changein land rights arrangements already exists. The practical problemin such cases is the careful analysis of benefits and costs,including equity considerations.      

An analysis of credit terms in the eurodollar market

A model is presented incorporating various elements involved in the determination of theinterest rate in a capital market that is not purely competitive. It yields an equilibrium relation between the interest rate and the probability of default such that higher probability implies higher interest. Other factors affecting the rate of interest are the elasticity of demand, the perceived rate of loss related to default, and an extra premium due to risk aversion. The equilibrium relation is used as an econometric model which, under appropriate specifications, generates estimates of the weights attached to subjective risk indicators. The data cover transactions in the Eurocurrency market and deal only with publicly guaranteed loans to developing countries. Several economic indicators are identified as significantly affecting the subjective probability. These can be used to generate estimates of the subjective probabilities themselves.