Showing papers on "Leasehold estate published in 1997"

Informational Rents and Property Rights in Land

Abstract: The institution of sharecropping tenancy and its inefficiency has long fascinated development economists, especially following the famous footnotes on the subject in Marshall (1920).1 The tendency for a landlord to appropriate a fraction of the crop tilled by a tenant, and to interlink the tenancy contract with monopoly provision of credit, appears to many people to be ‘semi-feudal’ in character, inducing low levels of agricultural productivity. This orthodoxy has been challenged in the last two or three decades on a number of conceptual grounds, following the critique of the Marshallian argument by Cheung (1969). Sharecropping is viewed as providing a reasonable compromise between the need for a wealthy landlord to share risks with a poor tenant, and to provide incentives to the latter to apply effort (Stiglitz, 1974; Newbery, 1977; Bell, 1989; Singh, 1989). Interlinking of tenancy and credit contracts is viewed as an efficient response to the problem of moral hazard on the part of the tenant, to avoid externalities between landlords and creditors (Braverman and Stiglitz, 1982; Bell, 1989).

Does Lack of Access to Formal Credit Constrain Agricultural Production? Evidence from the Land Tenancy Market in Rural India

Abstract: While it is commonly believed that lack of access to government-subsidized "formal" credit underlies observed differences in farm productivity in rural India, there is little empirical evidence on this issue. In this paper I address this issue by examining whether households use the farm land rental market to equilibrate their access to formal credit, as they are known to do in the case of other imperfectly marketable inputs. This research reveals, however, that the advantage formal borrowers enjoy in the tenancy market does not reflect their access to formal credit per se, but their greater ownership of inputs such as irrigated land.

Solving the ideal tenant mix puzzle for a proposed shopping centre: a practical research methodology

Abstract: Tenants generate the income for a shopping centre and the value of this type of retail property to the property owner or landlord thus depends on the forecast of consumer demand for the products or services sold by tenants. Through balanced tenancy, the stores in a planned shopping centre complement each other in the quality and variety of their product offerings, and the kind and number of stores are linked to the overall needs of the surrounding population in the centre’s catchment areas. Whereas there is frequent reference in retailing literature to the importance of tenant mix for shopping centres, published research about the so‐called “ideal” tenant mix is almost non‐existent. Aims to rectify this situation partially and suggests a practical research method using a consumer preference weighting methodology based on three parameters, namely tenant category preference, tenant category ranking preference, and tenant shopping likelihood, consolidated into a single composite tenant choice index. The emphasis is on describing the logic of the research methodology, using a real‐life example of a planned‐to‐be‐erected shopping centre in South Africa, but due regard is given throughout to the relevant theoretical underpinnings in order to also contribute to this aspect of the young science.

Agricultural Chutes and Ladders: New Estimates of Sharecroppers and "True Tenants" in the South, 1900-1920

Abstract: In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the increase in tenancy, particularly in the South, alarmed many social commentators and later was an issue taken up by a number of historians.' Indeed the issue of rising tenancy rates was a major plank in the platform of the Populist movement. However, before one can make interpretations of the welfare of agricultural workers as a result of this rise in tenancy one needs to look more closely at the individual rungs of the agricultural ladder.2 This article sets out to repair the damaged sharecropper rung on the southern agricultural ladder. Without additional information regarding this rung, it is impossible to get a complete picture of the movement up and down the southern agricultural ladder. In the census years 1900 and 1910, the Census Bureau incorrectly classified sharecroppers as tenants, placing too many workers on that more affluent rung of the ladder. The intent of this article is to estimate the number of sharecroppers in order to provide a more accurate count of the number of "true tenants" in these years. With this more complete depiction of the agricultural ladder, movements up and down the ladder between the years 1900 and 1960 can be more accurately discussed, and thereby a basis is provided for scholars to accurately address the true welfare implications of these movements. Much of the misunderstanding of how the postbellum southern agricultural system worked is based on misinterpretations of how the census defined a "tenant," specifically how it defined a "share tenant." Beginning in 1920, the U.S. Census changed its "share tenant" category to exclude "sharecroppers." From then on share tenants and sharecroppers (or more commonly referred to as just "croppers") were, in the eyes of the census, fundamentally different types of farm operators. Although a cropper farmed a certain plot and received a share of the harvest from that plot as income, he often differed from other tenants in important respects, especially when he worked on a plantation.3 There he was usually closely supervised; he made none of the major farming decisions; and he generally supplied no input besides labor services. In most southern states he had no legal possession

The Growth of Small High-tech Firms: Destinies and Destinations of Innovation Centre 'graduates'

Abstract: Considerable attention has been paid in recent years to the activity of innovation or technology centres and to their role in nurturing small firms. There is relatively little systematic evidence on the survival and performance of such firms, either during or after their tenancy of these centres. This article reports the preliminary findings of a survey of over fifty companies which ‘graduated’ from St John’s Innovation Centre in Cambridge over the first eight years of its existence.

Ancient Rights and Future Comfort: Bihar, the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885, and British Rule in India

Abstract: This book analyses the character of British rule in nineteenth-century India, by focusing on the underlying ideas and the practical repercussions of agrarian policy. It argues that the great rent law debate and the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885 helped constitute a revolution in the effective aims of government and in the colonial ability to interfere in India, but that they did so alongside a continuing weakness of understanding and in effective local control. In particular, the book considers the importance of notions of historical rights and economic progress to the false categorisations made of agrarian structure. It shows that the Tenancy Act helped to widen social disparities in rural Bihar, and to create political interests on the land.

Policy Strategy and Instruments for Alleviating Rural Poverty

Abstract: The paper departs from the present policy emphasis for and more recent literature on rural poverty in advocating six major conclusions based on its validation of a multi-variate model explaining the behaviour of this poverty for 1960-61 to 1990-91 which is extended up to 1993-94. These are: One, contrary to the view that non-agricultural growth would provide off-farm employment opportunities to the rural poor we think that the strategy underlying such growth at an all-India level being capital-intensive with limited demand pull growth these opportunities do not bear fruits for the rural poor. What is, therefore, required is to shift industrialization strategy from “Machines First” to “Textiles First” which has high and dispersed employment and income multipliers and linkages. Two, what follows from the above suggestion is that agricultural growth should receive higher priority than is accorded now. And since such a growth has no trade-off with poverty ratio it would alleviate this poverty more rapidly. Three, the strategy for technology-led agricultural growth is even more potent than either poverty alleviation programs or land redistribution measures in alleviating absolute rural poverty. This follows from the finding that total factor productivity in agriculture is relatively more important than these other policies and programs in reducing this poverty. Rapid and broad-based technical change would therefore require higher priority for government expenditure on agricultural R&D, extension, irrigation and watersheds, electricity, seeds, rural roads etc. it would also require encouraging private investments in seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, farm implements and machinery through more conducive interest rates on (rural) credit and fiscal and other incentives for industries making these inputs. Four, between the poverty programs and land reforms latter may be prioritized more. But between egalitarian tenancy reforms and land ownership distribution the former may be more emphasized as inequality in land ownership unlike in operational land seems to generate process that alleviate rural poverty ration. Simultaneously, land consolidation programs also need to be urgently undertaken to make effective farm size lartger. Five, economic programmes for poverty alleviation may be prioritized next. These programs also need to have better sectoral integration such as for agriculture, dairying, fisheries etc. with an emphasis on technical change as these have a lion’s share in rural work-force. And six, price reforms through macro stabilization measures, and through reducing protection to trade and industry have the least impact on alleviating absolute rural povery. This may be because (a) inflation is more of a structural rather than monetary phenomenon, and (b) industries and business that are protected produce products that are perhaps remotely connected to poor’s consumption pattern.

Falahak, Inshallah (Flowering-God's Will): the struggle of the labouring poor, and a vision, strategy and programme for tenant-led bastiand city renewal

Abstract: This paper describes a new programme to assist tenants living in the bastis (low-income settlements) in Howrah. After this introductory section, Section II describes the development of low-income rental accommodation in the city including the establishment of the thika tenancy system in Calcutta. Despite legislation to improve the situation of tenants, living conditions remain very poor. Section III summarizes government responses, first through legislation and then through settlement upgrading programmes. These responses, however, did not secure improvements in living conditions. A new programme, the Calcutta Environmental Management Strategy and Action Plan (CEMSAP) has provided a new opportunity to look afresh at the needs of the city and its low-income residents. This programme has benefitted from being able to draw on several decades of innovative thinking and experience in urban development. The final section describes the local environment in one settlement where 80 per cent of the residents are te...

Latifundia as Malefactor in Economic Development? Scale, Tenancy, and Agriculture on the Pampas, 1880-1914

Abstract: This paper uses extensive micro-level data from Argentine agriculture circa 1880-1914 to explore various hypotheses relating to the supposed unusual and favored position enjoyed by the owner-operated large scale estates (latifundia) on the pampas as compared to small-scale units operated by cash tenants and sharecroppers. I have access to several data sets which allow me to explore whether tenancy and scale mattered as determinants of technique and efficiency in the rural estates of Buenos Aires province at the turn of the century, and I obtain some surprising results. Tenants did not seem disadvantaged in terms of access to land. Accumulation of land in and of itself produced no direct gain in terms of augmented land prices (due to say, scale economies or monopoly power). And tenancy status appears to have mattered very little as a determinant of investment choices. I conclude that the case against the latifundia, and the pessimistic conventional view of tenant farming on the pampas rests, at present, on little firm quantitative evidence.

Landownership in Britain and the Quest for Town Planning

Abstract: In this paper I endeavour to show that town planning in Britain, although placed within the ‘public domain’, is largely operating in accordance with the principles of private law. I also argue that town planning is an integral part of the land and property market which itself is conditioned by the definition of the rights in land and property. These rights are shown to be grounded in the traditions of the private land law as evolved over centuries from the feudal system of land and property relations. I therefore begin with an examination of development under the leasehold system in London during the 18th and 19th centuries and find that landowners, in their efforts of maintaining the value of their estate, conducted a form of environmental control very similar to what planners do nowadays as part of their activities in development control. It is then shown how the old system was unable to cope with the pressures of industrialisation and rapidly expanding urban areas. Politicians, royal commissions, and e...

Research on land markets in South Asia : what have we learned?

Abstract: The authors review the literature on land markets in South Asia to clarify what's known and to highlight unresolved issues. They report that: (1) We have a good understanding of why sharecropping persists and why it can be superior to other standard agricultural contracts. We have less understanding of what determines the relative efficiency of sharecropping in different environments and why other apparently superior contractual relationships are rare. (2) Insecure rights to land adversely affect production and investment incentives in areas outside of South Asia, but in South Asia strong evidence linking investment and rights to production is scarce. (3) An inverse relationship between farm size and output per unit area is a recurrent feature in data from South Asia, apparently related to land-labor interactions. (4) Although small farms seem to be more efficient than large ones, small farmers have trouble raising their profitability and enlarging their holding, largely because of credit constraints, but also because of poverty and policy that discriminates against them. (5) Misguided land reform in the past has made tenancy unattractive to landowners, so large capital-intensive farms have developed. Political economic analysis is needed to explain the failure of past land reform, as well as distortions in agricultural input and output markets in (6) South Asia. Land fragmentation (as distinguished from farm size) has caused productivity losses. Those losses have not been quantified and the reasons fragmentation persists are poorly understood. (7) Transaction costs are a significant impediment to functioning land markets. In South Asia, transfers of land rights are complicated by lack of explicit title to land, and by informal and customary rights. (8) One pressing research problem is gender discrimination, an important factor in land market imperfections -especially (within the household) the separation of land management and its control. Research needs include more systematic regional comparisons, the use of more panel data, and an investigation of how agricultural productivity is affected by gender problems and land fragmentation.

A Dynamic Model of Contractual Choice in Tenancy

Abstract: Two issues in land tenure contracts in agriculture that have vexed economists are (1) the appearance and co-existence of multiple contracts, often in adjoining plots of land and (2) the choice of a share-cropping contract because a share contract being analogous to a proportional tax, is supposed to distort incentives and lead to sub-optimal use of inputs into land as well as lower levels of investment. In this paper we develop a dynamic two period model of landlord-tenant interaction in a principal-agent framework with one sided private information. The landlord has a choice of three contracts - wage, share and rent and chooses a contract so as to maximize her own pay-off. We show that under certain realistic assumptions (1) multiple contracts can co-exist over time and (2) share-cropping can arise and persist. The driving force in the model is the rate at which the agent discounts the future.

Assessing betterment under a public premium leasehold system: principles and practice in Canberra

Abstract: This article sets forth principles for assessing betterment under a public premium leasehold system of land tenure. Canberra, Australia, is employed as a case study. Recovery of the betterment which results as the city grows has been an important objective of public land ownership in Canberra. Up-front premiums and betterment charges replaced land rents in 1970. Betterment charges are applicable when permission to change land use is granted and there is an increase in the value of the lease. Different definitions used over time have failed to measure betterment correctly. A correct definition is derived, and it is argued that a 100% charge should be levied to maintain the government's ownership of development rights. Such a charge would not stifle redevelopment but would remove the subsidy it currently receives.

Latifundia as Malefactor in Economic Development? Scale, Tenancy, and Agriculture on the Pampas, 1880-1914

Abstract: This paper uses extensive micro-level data from Argentine agriculture circa 1880-1914 to explore various hypotheses relating to the supposed unusual and favored position enjoyed by the owner-operated large scale estates (latifundia) on the pampas as compared to small-scale units operated by cash tenants and sharecroppers. I have access to several data sets which allow me to explore whether tenancy and scale mattered as determinants of technique and efficiency in the rural estates of Buenos Aires province at the turn of the century, and I obtain some surprising results. Tenants did not seem disadvantaged in terms of access to land. Accumulation of land in and of itself produced no direct gain in terms of augmented land prices (due to say, scale economies or monopoly power). And tenancy status appears to have mattered very little as a determinant of investment choices. I conclude that the case against the latifundia, and the pessimistic conventional view of tenant farming on the pampas rests, at present, on little firm quantitative evidence.

Families, Insurance and Employment in Developing Agricultural Economies

Abstract: This paper studies the impact of families on sectoral labor allocation in developing agricultural economies. In an overlapping generations framework, we equate a family to a contingent-claims contract. Families are endogenous by design. A risk-averse adult facing possible unemployment may be insured by a less risk-averse elder. Similarly, a risk-averse elder may purchase crop failure insurance from a less risk-averse adult. The family is the unique provider of insurance services yielding positive expected insurance rent. A monopsonist landlord extracts this expected rent through state-contingent tenancy contracts. When unemployment insurance contracts are expensive to enforce, families do not exist if the adult is weakly risk-averse and unemployment risk is too high or too low This `family switching' property is internalized by the landlord, such that family organization alters the relative price of unskilled laborers, paid a fixed wage, and skilled sharecroppers to whom contingent tenancy contracts are offered. Our results indicate that families affect total employment and can yield multiple steady- state equilibria.

Karnataka : promises kept and missed

Abstract: Foreword - N C Saxena Land Reforms Debate - Sudhir Krishna An Overview Land Reforms - M V Nadkarni Their Continued Relevance Towards Decentralized Agrarian Reform - Narendar Pani Lessons from Karnataka's 1974 Experience Reflections on Land Ceilings Legislation in Karnataka - Abdul Aziz New Perspectives on Land Reforms - G Thimmaiah Effects of Land Reforms - M A S Rajan What Next? Implementation of the Land Ceiling Programme - K Gopal Iyer Tenancy Reforms - K H Gopala Krishne Gowda The Macro Perspective Implementation of Tenancy Reforms - G V Joshi The Case of Uttara Kannada District Agrarian Inequality - Chandrashekhara B Damle Post-Land Reforms Experience in Dakshina Kannada District Tenancy Reforms - K Gopel Iyer The Field Perspective Land Reforms and Common Property Resources - Hari Hara Nath Social Benefits and Ecological Costs of Distributive Land Reforms - A R Rajapurohit Distribution of Government Land - K Gopal Iyer Tribal Rights and Forest Laws in Karnataka - M K Ramesh A Preliminary Enquiry Computerization of Land Records in Karnataka - Subhash C Khuntia et al A Case Study of Gulbarga District

New technology diffusion and inducements to institutional innovation in land tenancy and labor contract systems in agrarian bangladesh

Abstract: In recent years, privatization and liberalization in agricultural input markets in Bangladesh, as well as improvements from the adoption of new technology and cropping systems, have occured in areas with year-round access to water for irrigation. This case study was conducted on two typical Bangladesh villages to determine how technological change induces institutional innovation in land and labor contract markets. The results show that the series of changes in land and labor contractual arrangement that becomes irrigated agriculture is more profit­ able with imperfect informal credit and a hired labor market.

The impact of changing legislation and agricultural policies on the letting arrangements of Scottish landowners

Abstract: The decision by landowners to let agricultural land is influenced by a number of personal and common factors. Common factors include: the legislation governing landlord and tenant relationships, the taxation/fiscal treatment of owner‐occupied and let land, and the agricultural policies relevant to let and owner‐occupied land. These common factors have undergone a number of significant revisions during recent decades which have tended to reduce the attractiveness of letting. Scottish landowners have responded by not only letting less agricultural land but letting a higher proportion under more short‐term arrangements. In particular, the limited partnership tenancy has replaced the traditional agricultural tenancy as the most popular arrangement entered into. This arrangement is covering increasing areas of land. However, its emergence will have long‐term consequences for land management in Scotland.

Agricultural tenancy reform: the end of law; or a new popular culture?

Abstract: This paper applies a reading of the postmodernisation of law to the incremental reform of agricultural holdings legislation over the last century In charting the shifting legal basis of agricultural tenancies, from ‘black letter’ positivism to the cultural contextuality of sumptuary law, the paper theorises that the underlying political imperative has been allied to the changing significance of property ownership and use Rather than reflecting the long-term official desire to maintain the let sector in British agriculture, however, the paper argues that this process has had other aims In particular, it has been about an annexation of law to legitimise the retention of landowner power while presenting a rhetorical ‘democratisation’ of farming, away from its plutocratic associations and towards a new narrative of ‘depersonalised’ business