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Field
Trial Title
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Before
Land Tenure Security for Men and Women: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Uganda
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After
Improving Women Farmers' Land Rights and Access to Credit: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Uganda
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Abstract
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Before
This research project evaluates the impact of a land titling intervention in rural Uganda. In addition, it seeks to understand the effectiveness of price subsidies and information in improving women's access to formal land titles. To do so, we randomize households into a control group and a treatment group of households that are offered fully-subsidized freehold land titles. Treatment households are further randomized into the following two treatments, fully crossed with each other. First, half of the treatment households receive the subsidy conditional on registering the wife as a co-owner of the land, and the other half receive the subsidy unconditionally. Second, half of the treatment households were shown a short educational video with general information about titling, and the other half are additionally shown information on the benefits of female co-titling.
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After
Developing countries are plagued with multiple institutional and market distortions. One important institutional imperfection is weak property rights over land. While land titling is expected to increase the incentives individuals have to make efficient long-term productive investments, its effectiveness might be weakened without an accompanying increase in credit supply. The core goal of this study is to shine novel light on the complementarity between strengthening land rights and relaxing credit constraints, by randomly assigning rural households in Western Uganda to four groups. The first group receives land titles, the second group receives a line of credit, the third group receives both land titles and the line of credit, and the fourth group receives no intervention. In addition, given women’s limited land rights under traditional customary land tenure systems, this study also seeks to understand the effectiveness of three instruments in promoting the take up of joint land titles: (i) the provision of information about the benefits of joint titling through a short video (rather than just generic information about titling), (ii) making the land title offer conditional on the wife’s name being included in the title (rather than making the offer unconditional), and targeting the land titling intervention to both the wife and the husband (rather than just targeting the husband).
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Trial End Date
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Before
August 31, 2019
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After
December 31, 2021
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Last Published
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Before
April 22, 2018 03:17 PM
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After
October 16, 2019 12:16 PM
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Intervention End Date
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Before
August 31, 2018
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After
June 30, 2019
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Primary Outcomes (End Points)
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Before
Our research sheds light on the constraints hindering women's access to formal land titles and quantifies the effect of (joint) land titling. Our outcomes of interest are take-up of formal (joint) titles, productivity, women's empowerment, and welfare.
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After
Our outcomes of interest are take up of (joint) land titles, take up of a new credit line product, farm and off-farm investments, productivity, income, and women's empowerment.
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Field
Experimental Design (Public)
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Before
A total of 1,646 households in 378 communities were selected to be part of the study. The communities are located in four districts (Mbarara, Sheema, Buhweju, and Isingiro) in the Western Region of Uganda. Those households with a married (or cohabitating) couple owning at least one unregistered parcel of land were deemed eligible for the intervention. The 378 communities were randomly assigned into a treatment group and a control group, stratified by parish. Households within treatment communities are offered fully-subsidized freehold land titles and shown a short educational video clip with general information information about titling.
Treatment communities are further randomized into the following two treatments, fully crossed with each other and stratified by parish. First, households in half of the treatment communities receive the subsidy conditional on registering the wife as a co-owner of the land, and the other half receive the subsidy unconditionally. Second, households in half of the treatment communities are shown an enhanced version of the video with additional information on the benefits of female co-titling, and the other half are shown the standard video with only general information about titling.
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After
A total of 1,646 households in 378 communities were selected to be part of the study. The villages are located in four districts (Mbarara, Sheema, Buhweju, and Isingiro) in the Western Region of Uganda. To examine the standalone and complementary impacts of land titling and improved access to credit, a two-step randomization is followed. The first stage takes place at the village level: villages either receive an offer for a fully-subsidized land title or no offer. The second stage takes place at the household level within villages: households either receive a credit line offer or no offer.
To understand the take up and impact of joint land titles, villages assigned to receive the land titling intervention are further randomized into the following two treatments, fully crossed with each other. First, households in half of the villages receive the land title offer conditional on registering the wife as a co-owner of the land, and the other half receive the land title offer unconditionally. Second, households in half of the villages are provided with persuasive information about the benefits of female co-titling in addition to general information about titling, and the other half are provided with just general information about titling. Finally, within a selected set of villages assigned to the land titling intervention, in half of the households the intervention is targeted at husbands only, and in the other half it is targeted at both spouses.
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Randomization Unit
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Before
Community
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After
Village level randomization for the land titling intervention.
Household level randomization for the line of credit intervention.
Household level randomization for the incentives for joint titling.
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Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
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Before
Core treatment assignment:
- Control group: 554 households and 125 villages
- Treatment group: 1,092 households and 253 villages
Incentives for joint titling assignment:
- Unconditional price subsides and general information: 276 households and 63 communities
- Conditional price subsidies and general information: 268 households and 63 communities
- Unconditional price subsides and general+gender information: 269 households and 63 communities
- Conditional price subsides and general+gender information: 279 households and 64 communities
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After
Land Titling and Credit Line core treatment arms:
- Land Titles and Credit: 546 households and 253 villages
- Land Titles and No Credit: 546 households and 253 villages
- No Land Titles and Credit: 277 households and 125 villages
- No Land Titles and No Credit: 277 households and 125 villages
Gender Conditionality and Gender Information treatment arms:
- Unconditional Land Title Offer and General Information: 276 households and 63 communities
- Conditional Land Title Offer and General Information: 268 households and 63 communities
- Unconditional Land Title Offer and General+Gender Information: 269 households and 63 communities
- Conditional land title offer and General+Gender Information: 279 households and 64 communities
Targeting of Land Titling Intervention treatment arms:
- Husband only: 369 households and 170 villages
- Husband and wife: 369 households and 170 villages
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Additional Keyword(s)
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Before
Land titling, formalization, gender, welfare
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After
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Keyword(s)
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Before
Agriculture
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After
Agriculture, Finance, Gender
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