Impacts of Land Rental Markets on Rural Poverty in Kenya

Songqing Jin and Thomas Jayne ()

No 103907, 2011 Annual Meeting, July 24-26, 2011, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: This study uses panel data from 1,142 Kenya smallholder households over four survey periods to examine the determinants of participation in land rental markets and to quantify the impact of renting land on households’ crop income and total income. We find that land rental markets in Kenya enhance productivity and are equitable. The results are consistent across different estimation methods and model specifications. Dynamic panel models were used to assess the impact of rental participation on households’ crop income and total income. After controlling for the endogeneity of rental market participation and the persistent effects of lagged income, we find that the decision to rent land increased tenant households’ net crop (net total) income by 25.1 (6.6) percent. These percentage gains are inversely related to household landholding size. Hence, land rental markets in Kenya appear to play an important role in raising incomes and reducing poverty for land-constrained smallholder farmers.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; International Development; Land Economics/Use (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40
Date: 2011
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-agr and nep-dev
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaea11:103907

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.103907

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