Do Limitations in Land Rights Transferability Influence Low Mobility Rates in Ethiopia?

Alan de Brauw and Valerie Mueller

No 60958, 2010 Annual Meeting, July 25-27, 2010, Denver, Colorado from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: Migration is considered a pathway out of poverty for many rural households in developing countries. National policies can discourage households from exploiting external employment opportunities through the distortion of capital markets. Studies in China show that the presence of state and collectively owned land creates inefficiencies in the labor market. We examine the extent restrictions on land rights impede mobility in Ethiopia, having the lowest urbanization rate in sub-Saharan Africa. The empirical estimates support a robust positive effect from increasing the transferability of land rights on migration. Our findings are suggestive that the nascent land certification and registration programs in regions of Ethiopia may potentially promote poverty reduction by increasing incentives to migrate.

Keywords: International Development; Labor and Human Capital; Land Economics/Use (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/60958/files/LandandMigration_AAEA2010.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaea10:60958

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.60958

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in 2010 Annual Meeting, July 25-27, 2010, Denver, Colorado from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().