The Evolution of Property Rights: State Law or Informal Norms?

Bubb, Ryan

doi:10.1086/673208

Cited by 53 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…In his systematic exploration of property rights institutions and development across the Ivory Coast-Ghana border, Bubb (2013) documents that while the two countries have quite distinct formal ( de jure ) institutions governing land rights (with Ghana, unlike Ivory Coast, explicitly recognizing customary law), there are no differences in the actual enforcement of property rights. Using a regression discontinuity approach that identifies the effect of national institutions at the border Bubb (2013) shows that households on either side of the border enjoy similar land rights.…”

Section: Chiefsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using a regression discontinuity approach that identifies the effect of national institutions at the border Bubb (2013) shows that households on either side of the border enjoy similar land rights. These are subject to local customary law (dating to the pre-colonial states of the Ashanti and the Akan) and the power of local chiefs on either side of the border.…”

Section: Chiefsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to Ashanti customary law, for example, land rights are not individualistic but are vested in the community with local chiefs acting as the arbitrators and the custodians. (Bubb (2013) reproduces an Ashanti adage saying that "the farm is my property, the land is the chief’s." ) This result is in line with the evidence of Goldstein and Udry (2008) who show that local chiefs and clans exert significant de facto power in assigning land in rural Ghana (see also Besley (1995) and Kutsoati and Morck (2012)).…”

Section: Chiefsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On the Ethnic Origins of African Development: Chiefs and Precolonial Political Centralization

Michalopoulos

Papaioannou

2015

AMP

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We report on recent findings of a fruitful research agenda that explores the importance of ethnic-specific traits in shaping African development. First, using recent surveys from Sub-Saharan African countries, we document that individuals identify with their ethnic group as often as with the nation pointing to the salience of ethnicity. Second, we focus on the various historical and contemporary functions of tribal leaders (chiefs) and illustrate their influence on various aspects of the economy and the polity. Third, we elaborate on a prominent dimension of ethnicity, that of the degree of complexity of pre-colonial political organization. Building on insights from the African historiography, we review recent works showing a strong association between pre-colonial centralization and contemporary comparative development both across and within countries. We also document that the link between pre-colonial political centralization and regional development -as captured by satellite images of light density at night-is particularly strong in areas outside the vicinity of the capitals, where due to population mixing and the salience of national institutions ethnic traits play a lesser role. Overall, our evidence is supportive to theories and narratives on the presence of a “dual” economic and institutional environment in Africa.

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Section: Chiefsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Chiefsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Chiefsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On the Ethnic Origins of African Development: Chiefs and Precolonial Political Centralization

Michalopoulos

Papaioannou

2015

AMP

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“…For example, Mamdani () argues that the legacy of colonialism in Africa is a bifurcated state where decentralized despotism rules in the rural areas and democratic institutions govern relations in the urban areas. The creation of customary institutions in the rural areas empowers local chiefs/tribal leaders and their influence persists nowadays, affecting property rights (Bubb, ), the redistribution of land (Goldstein and Udry, ), corruption and communal despotism (Lange, ).…”

Section: Channelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Size Matters: The Effect of the Size of Ethnic Groups on Development

Dimico

2016

Oxf Bull Econ Stat

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The share of ethnic groups is one of the most important features of African politics. It affects civil wars, representation in government positions, distributive and allocative policies. In this paper, we use the partition of ethnic groups as a natural experiment in order to estimate the effect of the share of these ethnic groups on development. We show that larger groups have an advantage in terms of development and that the partition in itself does not matter for development. This result is explained by the fact that the partition matters only when the resulting groups are relatively small, since their lack of political representation may weaken support for institutions, may bias policies and the provision of ethnic/regional public goods.

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“…Sin embargo, a pesar de las ganancias en eficiencia que los derechos de propiedad tienen sobre la producción agrícola y la inversión, estas no parecen ser homogéneas en todos los casos. Es posible que persistan formas tradicionales de tenencia, aún cuando existen esquemas legales (o de jure) que privilegian la propiedad privada, sobre todo cuando se está en las fronteras de los Estados donde la seguridad de los derechos es débil (Bubb, 2013;Campante y Do, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Persistencias históricas y discontinuidades espaciales : territorios comunitarios en el Pacífico colombiano

Higuera-Mendieta¹

2016

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Persistencias históricas y discontinuidades espaciales: territorios comunitarios en el Pacífico colombianoPor: Iván Higuera-Mendieta Núm. 239 Junio, 2016 Persistencias históricas y discontinuidades espaciales: territorios comunitarios en el Pacífico colombiano. ResumenLos derechos de propiedad han sido asociados comúnmente con la actividad económica. No obstante, esta relación puede ser condicionada por variables como la presencia estatal u otras variables políticas. Este artículo usa una aproximación cuasi-experimental gracias a la delineación de territorios colectivos en el litoral pacífico colombiano a partir de la Ley 70 de 1993 y busca entender el efecto de los esquemas de tenencia de la tierra sobre la actividad económica, medida a través de luces satelitales nocturnas. La propiedad colectiva no parece tener un efecto significativo sobre la actividad económica. Sin embargo, esto está condicionado a la cercanía a las capitales departamentales y antiguos centros coloniales, sugiriendo un equilibrio entre la persistencia histórica y la discontinuidad. AbstractProperty rights have been commonly associated with economic activity. Nonetheless, this correlation could be conditioned by other variables such as state presence. This article uses a quasiexperimental approach allowed by the delineation of collective land tenure in the Colombian Pacific and tries to capture how the tenure differences that this delineation creates can affect the economic activity. Private tenure does not have a significant effect, as it is commonly assumed. However, this non-significant effect does not hold when observations are near to a state or colonial capital, suggesting an equilibrium between historical persistence and discontinuity.

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The Evolution of Property Rights: State Law or Informal Norms?

Cited by 53 publications

References 32 publications

On the Ethnic Origins of African Development: Chiefs and Precolonial Political Centralization

On the Ethnic Origins of African Development: Chiefs and Precolonial Political Centralization

Size Matters: The Effect of the Size of Ethnic Groups on Development

Persistencias históricas y discontinuidades espaciales : territorios comunitarios en el Pacífico colombiano

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