Summary Although opinions on impacts of land market transfers are sharply divided, few studies explore welfare- and productivity-impact of land sales markets over a long time horizon and national scale. A panel spanning almost 20 years, together with an indicator of climatic (rainfall) shocks,...

Agriculture made major contributions to China’s growth and poverty reduction, but the literature has rarely focused on the institutional factors that might underpin such structural transformation and productivity. Drawing on an 8-year panel of 1,200 households in six provinces, we find that...

Summary Although many African countries have recently adopted highly innovative and pro-poor land laws, lack of implementation thwarts their potentially far-reaching impact on productivity, poverty reduction, and governance. We use a representative household survey from Ethiopia where, over a...