In rural Africa, the access and the use of land are often governed by traditional customs and rules whose informal procedures can result in a low degree of tenure protection. We study a land reform aimed at formalising land rights, granting ownership also to women traditionally excluded by land ownership, and improving tenure protection that was implemented in rural villages of a low-income sub-Saharan country – Benin. We test how the reform impacted the structure of the land market and socio-economic networks, interpersonal trust and willingness to compete, and women empowerment and sense of agency. We leverage on the randomised control-trial implementation of the reform in hundreds of rural villages. Ten years after the reform implementation, rural villagers report that the reform was effective in improving right-holders’ perceived tenure security. Treated villagers display a significantly higher propensity to engage in transactions out of the village and to accept risky competition. However, we find that the reform did not increase perceived trust toward anonymous out-group individuals. Similarly, we find that the reform did not significantly boost women’s empowerment and sense of agency, nor it affected the perceived social appropriateness of female land ownership.
STEG Project Policy Brief
• Research Theme 3: Agricultural Productivity and Sectoral Gaps,
Cross-Cutting Issue 1: Gender
How Formal Property Rights Shape Social and Economic Networks
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