Unequal land distribution and the
negative social and economic implications resulting from
such polarization in Colombia have long been of concern to
policymakers. A 1950 World Bank mission identified unequal
land distribution as a key impediment to economic and social
development in the country. Since then, a wide range of
policies has been adopted to deal with this issue and its
consequences. Numerous studies show that the success of

Land tenure security is crucial for
women's empowerment and a prerequisite for building
secure and resilient communities. Tenure is affected by many
and often contradictory sets of rules, laws, customs,
traditions, and perceptions. For most rural women, land
tenure is complicated, with access and ownership often
layered with barriers present in their daily realities:
discriminatory social dynamics and strata, unresponsive

Albania's radical farmland
distribution is credited with averting an economic crisis
and social unrest during the transition. But many believe it
led to a holding structure too fragmented to be efficient,
and that public efforts to consolidate plots are needed to
lay the foundation for greater rural productivity. This
paper uses farm-level data from the 2005 Albania Living
Standards Measurement Survey to explore this quantitatively.

Risk-sensitive land use planning is
vital for sustainable economic development and effective
Disaster Risk Management (DRM). Urban development programs
should adopt risk-sensitive land use planning to encourage
resilient development guiding the growth of people, assets
and services within and away from hazardous zones. Many East
Asia and the Pacific (EAP) countries have national land use
policy and local plans which incorporate risk assessments;

This paper analyzes the effects of land
market restrictions on the rural labor market outcomes for
women. The existing literature emphasizes two mechanisms
through which land restrictions can affect the economic
outcomes: the collateral value of land, and (in) security of
property rights. Analysis of this paper focuses on an
alternative mechanism where land restrictions increase costs
of migration out of villages. The testable prediction of

This report examines land access,
disputes, and dispute resolution in Timor-Leste, using
findings from the justice module included in an extension of
the 2007 Timor-Leste Survey of Living Standards (TLSLS2) and
a review of relevant social-science literature. The
extension survey (TLSLSx) revisited a nationally
representative subsample of the TLSLS2 between April and
October 2008. The respondent for the justice module was

While scholars agree on the importance
of land rental markets for structural transformation in
rural areas, evidence on the extent and nature of their
operation, including potential obstacles to their improved
functioning, remains limited. This study uses
household-level data from six countries to start filling
this gap and derive substantive as well as methodological
lessons. The paper finds that rental markets transfer land

When government officials are involved in land transactions the scope for arbitrary decision making and corruption is large, and the land issue can turn into a political football among rival political parties.

Land rights for women are important to
women's overall role in the household economy. In most
Europe and Central Asia (ECA) countries, women have equal
rights to land by law, but practice varies widely across the
region. Improving gender outcomes in land administration is
therefore related more to education and the need to change
norms and habits than it is to a specific legislative
problem. Access to gender-disaggregated data and the

To appreciate overall impacts of fragmentation, underlying channels, and potential heterogeneity by holding size, we distinguish average fragment size and mean inter-fragment distance as two aspects of this phenomenon. Estimating a cost function with associated input demand equations on a large nationally representative Indian survey, robust to endogeneity, suggests that fragmentation’s main impact is to reduce mean plot size below the threshold for mechanization. Higher inter-fragment distances increase costs for larger holdings, but by a much smaller magnitude.

Land markets that allow access to
land-and to buildings-through secure property rights, at
transparent prices, and with efficient permitting processes
and land tax systems are essential to a good business
environment. Creating such markets, however, can be a long,
complex, politically charged process, especially where most
land is untitled and where there are conflicting claims. But
experience points to practical interim or step solutions

The main objective of the Egypt Public
Land Management Strategy is to provide the Government of
Egypt (GOE) with practical and politically feasible policy
recommendations to reform existing public land management
policies and practices in the aim of improving the business
climate in Egypt. This study is presented in two volumes:
Volume one with the main policy note, supported by Volume
two with background notes on access to public land by