Despite strong beliefs that property
titling and registration will enhance credit access,
empirical evidence in support of such effects remains scant.
The gradual roll-out of computerization of land registry
systems across Andhra Pradesh's 387 sub-registry
offices allows us to combine quarterly administrative data
on credit disbursed by all commercial banks for an
eleven-year period (1997-2007) aggregated to the

This paper investigates the impact of
land tenure insecurity on the migration decisions of
China's rural residents. A simple model first frames
the relationship among these variables and the probability
that a reallocation of land will occur in the following
year. After first demonstrating that a village leader's
support for administrative land reallocation carries with it
the risk of losing a future election, the paper exploits

In the 1980s the Thai government tried to legalize squatters by issuing special titles that restricted the sale and rental of the land. Using data from 2,874 farming households collected in 1997, the author finds that in places where these government titles where issued, leased plots are more likely to be titled than those that are self-cultivated. For these areas, he uses a model to estimate a 6 percent risk premium in the rental rate for untitled plots.

Secure property rights are considered a
key determinant of economic development. However, evaluation
of the causal effects of land titling is a difficult task.
Since 2004, the Brazilian government, through a program
called "Papel Passado," has issued titles to more
than 85,000 families and has the goal to reach 750,000.
Another topic in public policy that is crucial for
developing economies is child labor force participation. In

Land policy, administration and
management are areas of strong client demand for technical
advice and operational support. This review sought to help
the Bank better position itself to present coherent advice
on policy, institutional arrangements and practice. The
potential implications are a lowering of reputational risk
to the Bank; greater efficiency in the process including
joint data gathering; and building of greater momentum and

When it comes to strategy, the Chinese
have a saying: 'think big, start small, but move
fast.' This has been our guiding philosophy for the
pilot land reforms of the World Bank-Department of
International Development (DFID) sub national Investment
Climate Program (ICP) in Nigeria. The challenge was to find
a 'small' reform entry point from which to
'move fast' on this sensitive and difficult topic,

The Philippine Economic Update (PEU)
provides an update on key economic and social developments,
as well as policies over the past six months. It also
presents findings from recent World Bank studies on the
Philippines. It places them in a longer term and global
context, and assesses the implications of these developments
and policies on the outlook for the Philippines. Its
coverage ranges from the macro-economy and financial markets

The Cambodian Land Law (2001) provides
indigenous ethnic minority groups with a right to register
their traditional residential and agricultural lands under
communal title. To date, however, this right has remained
unrealized. While the government has been working on a pilot
registration process in three villages and drafting
implementing regulations under the land law, Cambodia's
once remote highlands have become increasingly exposed to

Rural areas in Cote d'Ivoire
account for 55 percent of the total population. Rural people
rely heavily on export- and food-crop production as their
primary source of livelihood. However, 71 percent of the
rural population live below the poverty line. The government
and the Bank agree that access to land and natural resource
management are critical factors in coping with the rural
crisis. The government invited the Bank to help meet the

This report examines the question of
land titling in Madagascar, a country where modern and
informal tenure systems coexist and overlap to a significant
extent. The report reviews three main arguments for land
titling and their relevance for Madagascar in order to
provide policy implications and evaluations. The first is
that land titling serves as protection against
expropriation. Second, titles may also facilitate land

The aim of this discussion paper is to
ascertain the government of Lao's (GoL) current
practices in negotiating, awarding, and managing land
concessions; enhance GoL understanding and commitments to
develop national capacities targeting improved land
management, that will generate revenues for GoL, and ensure
sustainable development as an urgent priority; and provide a
basis for dialogue within the government to enable its

This report analyzes land issues in Sri
Lanka, which cannot be seen in isolation from the ethnic and
political conflict and, at the same time, even though land
conflict is often linked with the ethnic conflict in Sri
Lanka, a large number of land conflicts in the North and
East can be resolved prior to a full and national political
solution to the ethnic situation. This report analyzes
constraints and opportunities for an effective governance