New publication by Michael Grimm and Stephan Klasen (Universität Göttingen) in Land Economics, the world wide leading journal on problems related to land use, natural resources, public utilities, housing, and urban land issues.
Migration pressure, tenure security and agricultural intensification. Evidence from Indonesia
In their paper Grimm und Klasen explore the role played by migration induced population pressure for the endogenous adoption of formal land titles and subsequent investments in land in Central Sulawesi (Indonesia). Using original village and household-level data they provide evidence that migration pressure increased the incentives to formalize landownership. The adoption of formal land rights was in turn associated with increased expenditures for agricultural inputs and investment in trees, terraces, ditches and irrigation systems. They show that the availability of a demand-driven land titling system has been critical for increased agricultural intensification in the Indonesian setting. This paper contributes to the still intense debate regarding the role of formal land titles for agricultural development.