Delinking Land Rights from Land Use: Certification and Migration in Mexico

Alain de Janvry (), Kyle Emerick (), Marco Gonzalez-Navarro and Elisabeth Sadoulet ()

American Economic Review, 2015, vol. 105, issue 10, 3125-49

Abstract: In many developing countries property rights over rural land are maintained through continuous personal use instead of by land titles. We show that removing the link between land use and land rights through the issuance of ownership certificates can result in large-scale adjustments to labor and land allocations. Using the rollout of the Mexican land certification program from 1993 to 2006, we find that households obtaining certificates were subsequently 28 percent more likely to have a migrant member. We also show that even though land certification induced migration, it had little effect on cultivated area due to consolidation of farm units. (JEL O13, O17, P14, Q15, Q18, Q24, Q28)

JEL-codes: O13 O17 P14 Q15 Q18 Q24 Q28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.20130853
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (184)

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Working Paper: Delinking Land Rights from Land Use: Certification and Migration in Mexico (2014)
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