In the 1980s the Thai government tried to legalize squatters by issuing special titles that restricted the sale and rental of the land. Using data from 2,874 farming households collected in 1997, the author finds that in places where these government titles where issued, leased plots are more likely to be titled than those that are self-cultivated. For these areas, he uses a model to estimate a 6 percent risk premium in the rental rate for untitled plots.

This paper analyzes land transactions
between municipalities and private businesses based on
official data and business surveys in 15 regions of the
Russian Federation. Since the Russian Federation passed the
new Land Code in 2001, land privatization has been
officially encouraged by the federal government and in
particular, land under previously privatized buildings was
supposed to be privatized to the owner at a nominal price.

As the world is urbanizing, many cities
are grappling with a population that is growing rapidly,
thereby increasing demand for land and housing. This
pressure on land and housing markets often is exacerbated by
inappropriate or inadequate policies. The result is a supply
of well-located land and housing that falls well short of
demand and the proliferation of poorly serviced informal
settlements, many of which are located far from jobs, city

Mixed evidence on the impact of formal title in much of Africa is often used to question the relevance of dealing with land policy issues in this continent. The authors use data from Uganda to assess the impact of a disaggregated set of rights on investment, productivity, and land values, and to test the hypothesis that individuals' lack of knowledge of the new law reduces their tenure security. Results point toward strong and positive effects of greater tenure security and transferability.

The objective of this policy note on
land is to assist the Government of Moldova in improving the
effectiveness of land management in agriculture, with a view
to enhancing the sector's contribution to
Moldova's economic growth and poverty reduction
objectives. The note reviews the progress that has been
made to date on land reform in Moldova, and provides
rigorous economic analysis of the impacts of the reforms and

This paper is motivated by the emphasis
on secure property rights as a determinant of economic
development in recent literature. The authors use village
and household level information from about 800 villages
throughout China to explore whether legal reform increased
protection of land rights against unauthorized reallocation
or expropriation with below-average compensation by the
state. The analysis provides nation-wide evidence on a

This note summarizes findings from an
analysis of Vanuatu national leasing data drawn from the
Vanuatu department of lands databases for the period of
1980-2010. It provides a preliminary indication of how much
of Vanuatu is currently under lease, where land is being
leased, how leased land is being used, the length of leases,
and the extent that leases have been subdivided. The profile
also highlights areas where data collection needs to be improved.

Although transfer of agricultural land
ownership through land reform had positive impacts on
productivity, investment, and political empowerment in many
cases, institutional arrangements in West Bengal -- which
made tenancy heritable and imposed a prohibition on
subleasing -- imply that early land reform benefits may not
be sustained and gains from this policy remain well below
potential. Data from a listing of 96,000 households in 200

Under the Vanuatu constitution, the
'rules of custom shall form the basis of ownership and
use of land.' Implementing this principle after decades
of land alienation, however, has proved to be challenging.
While the leasing arrangement was originally intended to
restore investor confidence and maintain agricultural
development in newly independent Vanuatu, it soon evolved
into the method of acquiring new leases over previously

Enterprises use credit to acquire
productivity-enhancing assets. Rural enterprises in
developing economies, however, often lack access to the
credit they need. Key reasons for this lack of access
include the low level and scattered nature of economic
activity in rural areas, the enterprises' lack of
collateral, inadequate capacity among the country's
lenders to lend in rural areas, and legal and policy

By studying the approach of IFC leasing
technical assistance projects implemented to date, the
authors hope to provide a useful reference. This manual
highlights which elements to look for locally, why
experiences may be different between countries, and what
(based on our collective experience) may be appropriate
courses of action. Examining the approach of current and
past projects, this manual also aims to identify the key

IFC has built up a hefty portfolio of
debt and equity investments in leasing companies in emerging
markets. Based on IFC's experience, the authors argue
that leasing is an effective instrument for financing small
firms' investments in equipment --especially in
countries with weak collateral laws or mostly new businesses
that lack historical financial statements.