Using Registry Data to Assess Gender-Differentiated Land and Credit Market Effects of Urban Land Policy Reform: Evidence from Lesotho

Daniel Ayalew Ali and Klaus Deininger

No 9681, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: Since 2010, Lesotho has implemented legal and institutional changes to allow female land ownership, established a new land agency, reduced the cost of registering land, and carried out systematic urban land titling. Analysis using administrative data shows that these reforms triggered discontinuous and sustained changes in quality of service delivery, female land ownership, and registered land sales and mortgage volume. Land and credit market activation is, however, exclusively due to policy reforms. While (subsidized) systematic land registration allows women to access documented land rights, these effects may not be sustained without further regulatory change, highlighting the importance of reducing fees and streamlining processes to improve urban land and financial market functioning as a key precondition for Africa’s expected wave of urbanization translating into productive cities and jobs.

Keywords: Gender and Development; Capital Flows; Capital Markets and Capital Flows; Non Bank Financial Institutions; Housing Finance; Agricultural Economics; Gender and Economics; Gender and Poverty; Gender and Economic Policy; Economics and Gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-06-01
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