Land Rental Markets: Experimental Evidence from Kenya / Michelle Acampora, Lorenzo Casaburi, Jack Willis.

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Acampora, Michelle

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Material type: Text

TextSeries: Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) ; no. w30495.Publication details: Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2022.Description: 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white)Subject(s):

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Abstract: Land market incompleteness is argued to have pervasive effects in Sub-Saharan Africa, including on agricultural efficiency, equity, and structural transformation. Yet experimental evidence on land market participation is virtually non-existent. We randomly allocate subsidies for agricultural rentals in Kenya and study who selects into land markets, what renters do differently from owners, and the resulting effects on agricultural and owner outcomes. The induced rentals increase equity - reallocating plots to farmers who own fewer plots and are younger and more market-oriented - and persist beyond the subsidy. Renters increase output and value added on the rented plot, by more than owners under an equivalent unconditional cash transfer, and they do so by increasing commercial crop cultivation and non-labor inputs, rather than labor. Although owners cultivate less land under the rental subsidy, their non-agricultural labor decreases. The results shed light on the nature and magnitude of land market frictions, and on their interactions with other missing markets.

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Item type	Home library	Collection	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Working Paper	Biblioteca Digital	Colección NBER	nber w30495 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Not For Loan

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September 2022.

Land market incompleteness is argued to have pervasive effects in Sub-Saharan Africa, including on agricultural efficiency, equity, and structural transformation. Yet experimental evidence on land market participation is virtually non-existent. We randomly allocate subsidies for agricultural rentals in Kenya and study who selects into land markets, what renters do differently from owners, and the resulting effects on agricultural and owner outcomes. The induced rentals increase equity - reallocating plots to farmers who own fewer plots and are younger and more market-oriented - and persist beyond the subsidy. Renters increase output and value added on the rented plot, by more than owners under an equivalent unconditional cash transfer, and they do so by increasing commercial crop cultivation and non-labor inputs, rather than labor. Although owners cultivate less land under the rental subsidy, their non-agricultural labor decreases. The results shed light on the nature and magnitude of land market frictions, and on their interactions with other missing markets.