Ask a local: improving the public pricing of land titles in urban Tanzania

Martina Manara and Tanner Regan

CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: Information on willingness-to-pay is key for public pricing and allocation of services but not easily collected. Studying land titles in Dar-es-Salaam, we ask whether local leaders know and will reveal plot owners' willingness-to-pay. We randomly assign leaders to predict under different settings then elicit owners' actual willingness-to-pay. Demand is substantial, but below exorbitant fees. Leaders can predict the aggregate demand curve and distinguish variation across owners. Predictions worsen when used to target subsidies, but adding cash incentives mitigates this. Finally, we demonstrate that leader-elicited information can improve the public pricing of title deeds, raising uptake while maintaining public funds.

Keywords: property rights; willingness-to-pay; public pricing; local publicly provided goods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-04-28
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-dcm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Ask a local: improving the public pricing of land titles in urban Tanzania (2022)
Working Paper: Ask a local: Improving the public pricing of land titles in urban Tanzania (2022)
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