The following article is the first in an occasional series introducing new data bases. The series intends to make new development data bases more widely available and to contribute to discussion and further research on economic development issues. The data bases included in the series are selected for their potential usefulness for research and policy analysis on critical issues in developing and transition economies. Some are drawn from micro-level firm or household surveys; others contain country-level data. The authors describe the data contents, criteria for inclusion or exclusion of values, sources, strengths and weaknesses, and any plans for maintenance or updating. Each data base is available from the author, at the address provided in the article.

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The authors use a large data set from Ethiopia thatThe large productivity effect of terracing implies that, differentiates tenure security and transferability to even where households undertake investments to explore determinants of different types of land-related increase their tenure security, this may not be socially investment and its possible impact on productivity.efficient. In Ethiopia, government action to increase While they find some support for endogeneity of tenure security and transferability of land rights can investment in trees, this is not the case for terraces.significantly enhance rural investment and productivity. Transfer rights are unambiguously investment-enhancing. This paper-a product of Rural Development, Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the group to assess the impact of land policy on equity and productive development. Copies of the paper are available free from the World Bank,

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

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