Showing papers on "Leasehold estate published in 2009"

Land Reform in Developing Countries: Property Rights and Property Wrongs

Abstract: Introducing Land Reform 1. Goals 2. Output, Efficiency and Growth 3. Land Reforms: The Types, and the Classic Paradigm 4. Tenurialism: Tenancy Reform, Titling, Patrialisation 5. The Terrible Detour: Collectivisation and Decollectivisation 6. Alternatives, Complements, Diversions, 'New Wave' Land Reform 7. The Death of Land Reform?

China's Land Market Auctions: Evidence of Corruption

Abstract: This paper studies the urban land market in China in 2003--2007. In China, all urban land is owned by the state. Leasehold use rights for land for (re)development are sold by city governments and are a key source of city revenue. Leasehold sales are viewed as a major venue for corruption, prompting a number of reforms over the years. Reforms now require all leasehold rights be sold at public auction. There are two main types of auction: regular English auction and an unusual type which we call a "two stage auction". The latter type of auction seems more subject to corruption, and to side deals between potential bidders and the auctioneer. Absent corruption, theory suggests that two stage auctions would most likely maximize sales revenue for properties which are likely to have relatively few bidders, or are "cold", which would suggest negative selection on property unobservables into such auctions. However, if such auctions are more corruptible, that could involve positive selection as city officials divert hotter properties to a more corruptible auction form. The paper finds that, overall, sales prices are lower for two stage auctions, and there is strong evidence of positive selection. The price difference is explained primarily by the fact that two stage auctions typically have just one bidder, or no competition despite the vibrant land market in Chinese cities.

The Role of Risk and Transaction Costs in Contract Design: Evidence from Farmland Lease Contracts in U.S. Agriculture

Abstract: The objective of this article is to provide new empirical evidence on landlord-tenant choices of share versus cash-rent contracts in U.S. agriculture. The focus is on the contribution of explanatory variables that represent transaction costs, risk-sharing incentives, or both. An empirical model of contract choice is tested against the 1999 Agricultural Economics and Land Ownership Survey (AELOS) and finds mixed evidence for low transaction cost and risk-sharing-incentive motives for landlord-tenant choices of a share versus cash-rent contract. However, the behavior of landlords and tenants is consistent with them being risk averse. Although it is standard to control for the riskiness of the principal's task that is contracted, we find that other attributes of the landlord are an important part of a relatively complex story for U.S. land tenancy contacting. The latter results have generally been ignored in other published landlord-tenant contracting studies.

Environment, Migration and Food Security in the Upper West Region of Ghana

Abstract: Ghana has achieved dramatic improvements in national food security in recent years, but concealed in this overall progress is a considerable measure of regional unevenness, with the population living in the dry savannah regions in the north faring the worst. The Upper West Region (UWR) is the poorest region of Ghana and has long served as a reservoir of migratory labour for the southern parts of the country, but in recent years migration patterns have been both escalating and changing. Increasingly, permanent UWR migration is focusing on the more fertile lands of the Brong-Ahafo Region (BAR), where migrants are able to access farmland in different leasehold relationships. A rapid research appraisal conducted in Techiman (BAR) suggests that UWR migrants view their growing settlement in the BAR to be a long-term phenomenon. It also highlighted how land tenancy issues are central to the challenges migrant farmers face, and are largely perceived as being immutable by the farmers themselves. Nearly all new UWR migrants must begin working in sharecropping relationships for BA landlords, paying out one-third of their harvest as rent, and over time they hope to save sufficient market earnings in order to lease the land outright. Despite these rents and the high cost of transportation, this chapter suggests that evolving migration patterns from the Upper West Region (UWR) of Ghana are connected to an intensifying system of domestic “food aid” (i.e. non-market transfers) back to the region, providing a crucial means of coping with its precarious food insecurity. With environmental conditions in dry regions of Sahelian Africa projected to worsen with climate change, the agricultural capacity of the UWR is likely to deteriorate further in coming years, with migratory pressures therefore continuing to rise. In light of this, this study points towards both future research objectives in the UWR and the BAR, as well as to the implications such research could have for policy interventions and locally grounded regional initiatives.

Sharecropping, Insecure Land Rights and Land Titling Policies: A Case Study of Lac Alaotra, Madagascar

Abstract: Sharecropping between poor landlords and rich tenants has hitherto been the subject of very little academic scrutiny. Given that such ‘reverse share tenancy’ contracts are mostly at odds with the canonical risk-sharing explanation for sharecropping, this article discusses a rationale for them that relies on weak property rights as well as the legal doctrine of adverse possession, and tests it using data from Lac Alaotra, Madagascar, where this type of tenancy accounts for one-third of land rentals. The empirical findings are discussed in relation to recent land-reform policies by the Government of Madagascar, the World Bank, IFAD, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

Residential Asking Rents and Time on the Market

Abstract: Landlords offering a house in the rental market face a difficult strategic pricing decision. The revenue maximizing decision for the landlord involves a tradeoff between the rental rate and time on the market. Because the turnover of renters is higher than owners, and because the landlord must bear some carrying costs on a vacant house, pricing the rent too high may decrease revenue due to a higher vacancy period and pricing it too low may reduce the revenue when occupied. While there is substantial research on the relationship between listed prices and time on the market for freehold interests, this is the first study to provide empirical evidence on the relationship between asking rent, contract rent and time on the market for single family residential rental (leasehold) property interests. We present two models; a rental price model and a duration model for time-on-the market. Using data from the Dallas-Fort Worth area we find that landlords who set a lower asking rent relative to predicted rent can expect a shorter marketing period for their properties. The results also indicate that overpricing the asking rent and then lowering it at a later date leads to a longer marketing time (after the reset) and often a lower rent. These finding are reasonably robust for low-, mid-, and higher-valued rental properties.

Ownership characteristics of heir property in a black belt county: a quantitative approach *

Abstract: The existing literature identifies heir property, land held communally by heirs of someone who has died without a will, as a primary cause of land loss among African Americans and a major factor contributing to persistent poverty in the South’s demographically-defined Black Belt. Despite the importance of this form of property, little systematic research has been done to quantify the extent of heir property or the potential wealth tied up in clouded titles. This study documents the presence of more than 1,500 heir property parcels in one Alabama Black Belt county (Macon) and describes the methodological challenges involved in such research. Our analysis identified distinctive characteristics of and significant relationships between a set of key ownership variables (taxpayer location, size and value of land, structural improvements, and municipal incorporation). We argue the need to document the extent and consequences of heir property to spur action by legislators, Extension Systems across the region, and pro-bono attorneys, among others, to address the personal and economic costs associated with this form of insecure ownership. When a landowner dies intestate (without a probated will), state laws of descent and distribution regulate what happens to the property, which usually gets passed as an undivided unit to the decedent’s heirs. Because there is no right of survivorship, the property becomes further fractionalized and the number of coowners increases with each passing generation. Often only one or a handful of heirs remain on the land, paying taxes and maintaining the property. Yet these co-owners hold no more legal claim to the land than those living several states away. This form of property ownership (legally known as “tenancy in common”) is common among low-income rural populations, including Appalachians and Native Americans (see Deaton 2009; Gilbert and Sharp 2001). The prevalence of heir property relegates “a broad group of African Americans who inherited land through intestacy to a disadvantaged class of property ownership” (Rivers 2007:7). Heir property can be a source of family unity and a place of sanctuary in time of need, but the literature is full of conflicts over heir property that have torn

Multi-tenant oriented database engine and its data access method

Abstract: A database engine facing multiple tenancies and data accessing method thereof are provided. The method of the invention includes: receiving a data access request of tenancy; determining the tenancy entity corresponding to the tenancy, wherein multiple tenancy entities share one logic table in the database; processing the data access request of the tenancy according to the configuration information of the tenancy entity. The invention introduces the concept of tenancy entity to the database: a plurality of tenancy entities shares one logic table such that the development and management costs are reduced; meanwhile, every tenancy entity has independent database access account number such that the security problem of the database access is solved; when the tenancy request comes, the data access request of the tenancy is processed according to the authority of the account number of the tenancy. Due to the introduced concept of the tenancy entity in the invention, the data of the tenancy is physically separated from each other and thus it is possible to improve performance, excellent isolation and expandability; and it is possible to realize the service quality management for the tenancy at the same time.

Residential Protectionism and the Legal Mythology of Home

Abstract: Residential real estate has achieved an exalted status and privileged position in American property law. The notion of the home as a special object deserving heightened protection is widely accepted within the case law and scholarship. Influential scholars, most notably Margaret Radin, have argued that the home is critical for an individual's very identity and ability to flourish in society. Other commentators have expounded a communitarian vision of the home as rooting individuals in communities of close-knit social ties. Over the past century, there has been a proliferation of legislation creating special protections for owners of residential real estate such as homestead exemptions, tenancy by the entirety, property tax relief, and more recently foreclosure relief and state eminent domain legislation shielding residential real estate. This type of legislation imposes a variety of social costs including raising the cost of credit, skewing housing prices and incentivizing over-investment, and forcing less affluent homeowners to subsidize more affluent homeowners through regressive measures. One motivation for residential protection legislation is the desire to protect the special values attributed to the home, especially for families. More often, the impetus for such legislation is rent-seeking by special interest groups, competition between states to attract residents, actions by local home voters who attempt to externalize costs across localities, or grandstanding by politicians anxious to capitalize on the evocative chord of home protection. The belief that homes play a critical and irreplaceable role in the lives of individuals and families has provided a gloss of moral legitimacy to rent-seeking and greased the wheels of the residential protectionism machine. It is time for a critical reexamination of the importance attributed to the home. Drawing on the research literature in psychology, sociology, and demographics this paper argues that there is scant evidence to support a categorical theory of the home as a special object that constitutes individual identity or enables a rich web of social interactions. The psychology research illustrates the importance of social interaction and relationships (not possessions) for human functioning while the demographic research indicates that closely-knit, low-turnover, territorial neighborhoods are the exception, not the norm.

Sustaining at-risk Indigenous tenancies: a review of Australian policy responses

Abstract: The key objective of the study is to outline and evaluate the operation and effectiveness of tenant support programs and other tenancy support measures in assisting at-risk Indigenous tenants. This report describes and reviews all known mainstream and Indigenous-specific specialist tenant support programs operating around Australia. The review describes how these programs operate; the representation of Indigenous people in such programs, the services provided to clients and, where the data permit, the effectiveness of specialist tenant support programs in improving Indigenous housing outcomes. Our study also explores how tenant support program administrators interface with relevant agencies delivering support services to Indigenous tenants and assesses the role played by tenant support providers, community sector agencies in the main, in sustaining Indigenous tenancies.

Not Going It Alone: Social Integration and Tenancy Sustainability for Formerly Homeless Substance Users

Abstract: This article draws on findings from a study of a specialised tenancy support service for homeless substance users in a Midlands city, and contributes to debates about what makes solutions to homelessness sustainable. Two approaches to tenancy support are examined: first, a resettlement model based on risk management; and, second, a restorative model which prioritises support that enables people to rebuild their lives in a more holistic sense. Conclusions point to a need for a broader training for tenancy support workers and a funding level that enables them to stay with their clients long enough to facilitate this fuller restoration.

Influence of property rights on farmers' willingness to plant indigenous fruit trees in Malawi and Zambia

Abstract: Despite the important role that indigenous fruit trees play in the food security and livelihood of households in southern Africa, investments in the cultivation and conservation of indigenous fruit trees (IFTs) by farm communities is very low. Through the use of reconnaissance surveys, household surveys and focus group discussions, this study assessed the effects of land and tree tenures and household characteristics on farmers’ willingness to plant and domesticate IFTs in Malawi and Zambia. Results revealed that 98% of land cultivated by smallholder farmers in Malawi and Zambia were under customary land tenure system, and were conducive for tree cultivation as opposed to leasehold land tenure systems. The existing land user-rights of customary land were of private property regime, and provided smallholder farmers much freedom in land utilization. Household tree tenure was observed to account for 96% of tree tenure types, and is favourable to IFTs’ cultivation. Farmers’ resource endowment, cultural practices and socio-economic characteristics had overriding effects on fruit tree planting. The weak extension capacity, lack of knowledge in IFT cultivation, seedling scarcity, cultural norms such as matrilineal inheritance system were identified as major disincentives to fruit tree planting. Household size and formal education increased the probability of farmers to plant fruit trees in the study area. Contrary to popular notion, the existing land and tree tenure systems do not impose constrains on the cultivation of IFT by households.

China's Land Market Auctions: Evidence of Corruption

Abstract: This paper studies the urban land market in China in 2003--2007. In China, all urban land is owned by the state. Leasehold use rights for land for (re)development are sold by city governments and are a key source of city revenue. Leasehold sales are viewed as a major venue for corruption, prompting a number of reforms over the years. Reforms now require all leasehold rights be sold at public auction. There are two main types of auction: regular English auction and an unusual type which we call a "two stage auction". The latter type of auction seems more subject to corruption, and to side deals between potential bidders and the auctioneer. Absent corruption, theory suggests that two stage auctions would most likely maximize sales revenue for properties which are likely to have relatively few bidders, or are "cold", which would suggest negative selection on property unobservables into such auctions. However, if such auctions are more corruptible, that could involve positive selection as city officials divert hotter properties to a more corruptible auction form. The paper finds that, overall, sales prices are lower for two stage auctions, and there is strong evidence of positive selection. The price difference is explained primarily by the fact that two stage auctions typically have just one bidder, or no competition despite the vibrant land market in Chinese cities.

Heterogeneous risk preferences, discount rates and land contract choice in Ethiopia.

Abstract: This paper analyses the role of risk and rate of time preference in the choice of land contracts. The analysis builds on the risk-sharing and imperfect market explanations of contract choice. Unique data from Ethiopia, which contain land contract information and experimental risk and rate of time preference measures on matched landlord–tenant partners, are employed in the empirical analysis. The results show that landlord and tenant time preferences are significant determinants of contract choice. For landlords (but not tenants), risk preference is also significant, indicating the importance of financial constraints and production risk in the determination of contract choice. The results are of particular relevance to land market policy in Ethiopia, where production is risk-prone, financial markets are imperfect, and where there is a major need for the development of vibrant land rental markets.

Property Rights and Housing Value: The Impacts of Political Instability

Abstract: Political instability may weaken investors' belief in property rights, putting the investors in fear that part of the investment may be wasted due to poor protection. As a result, the investors are unwilling to pay a premium for the security of rights when facing political uncertainty. This article attempts to test the above hypothesis using 10-year freehold and leasehold housing transaction data in Hong Kong and Singapore, where different political scenarios, comparable land lease structures as well as similar property cycles were established during the period. The conceptual model yields testable predictions about our hypotheses, and the empirical results verify the predictions.

Property Rights and Contract Form in Medieval Europe

Abstract: Throughout western Europe, beginning about 1200, leasing of lords' estates became more common relative to direct management. In England, however, direct management increased beginning around the same time and until the fourteenth century, and leasing increased thereafter. This article models contract choice as a trade-off between incentives and insurance. Leasing increases as living standards improve. In England, the increase in direct management can be explained by improved security of freehold tenure, and the increase in leasing can be explained not only by improving living standards but also by improved security of leasehold tenure.

A theory of sharecropping: the role of price behavior and imperfect competition

Abstract: This paper proposes a theory of sharecropping on the basis of price behavior in agriculture and imperfectly competitive nature of rural product markets. We consider a contractual setting between one landlord and one tenant with seasonal variation of price, where the tenant receives a low price for his output while the landlord can sell his output at a higher price by incurring a cost of storage. We consider two different classes of contracts: (i) tenancy contracts and (ii) crop-buying contracts. It is shown that sharecropping is the optimal form within tenancy contracts and it also dominates crop-buying contracts provided the price variation is not too large. Then we consider interlinked contracts that have both tenancy and crop-buying elements and show that there are multiple optimal interlinked contracts. Finally, proposing an equilibrium refinement that incorporates imperfect competition in the rural product market, it is shown that the unique contract that is robust to this refinement results in sharecropping.

Housing policy for the poor: revisiting UDHA and CISFA

Abstract: The enactment of two pro-poor housing legislations in the 1990s—the Urban Development and Housing Act (UDHA) of 1992 and the Comprehensive Shelter Finance Act (CISFA) of 1994—led to major changes in government policy in housing the poor. From a highly centralized and heavily subsidized policy in the 1960s to the 1980s, the government moved to a market-oriented and participative approach to housing. In particular, UDHA promoted strategies such as localization of housing, public-private sector partnership, and beneficiary-led approach to resettlement. It also recognized the rights of the poor to adequate relocation sites when evicted and enhanced the acceptability of usufruct and leasehold rights as secure tenure instruments for housing finance. On the other hand, CISFA authorized regular funding for the key programs under UDHA. It introduced strategies toward the development of the capital market by strengthening stateestablished housing finance entities such as the Socialized Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC), the Housing Guarantee Corporation (HGC), and the National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation (NHMFC). The subsidy program of government also expanded beyond interest rate subsidies to include land grants and below-market sale of land, tax exemptions, housing material subsidy, and other forms of entitlements.

This land ain't my land: the eviction of sharecroppers by the farm security administration.

Abstract: The New Deal resettlement communities appear in the literature as efforts to ameliorate the wretched condition of southern sharecroppers and tenants. However, those evicted to make way for the new settlers are virtually invisible in the historic record. The resettlement projects were part of larger efforts to modernize rural America. "Modernization" is a complex process whereby a relatively specific set of assumptions and behaviors make other assumptions and behaviors "wrong," both morally and pragmatically. The removal of former tenants and their replacement by FSA clients in the lower Mississippi alluvial plain―the Delta―reveals core elements of New Deal Modernizing policies, exposing key concepts that guided the FSA's tenant removals: the definition of rural poverty as rooted in the problem of tenancy; the belief that economic success entailed particular cultural practices and social forms; and the commitment by those with political power to gain local support. These assumptions undergirded acceptance of racial segregation and the criteria used to select new settlers. Alternatives could only become visible through political or legal action―capacities sharecroppers seldom had. However, in succeeding decades, these modernizing assumptions created conditions for Delta African Americans on resettlement projects to challenge white supremacy.

The development of leasehold in northwestern Europe, c. 1200-1600

Abstract: the development of leasehold in northwestern europe c 120

Comparative urban institutions and intertemporal externality: a revisit of the Coase conjecture

Abstract: Coase originally formulated his conjecture about intertemporal price competition in the context of a land market, but it has been applied almost exclusively to non-spatial markets. This paper revisits the Coase Conjecture in the context of land development and urban institutions. I compare four institutional arrangements based on the combination of land tenure options and local governance forms: private/rental, public/rental, private/owner and public/owner. The two-period model developed in this paper shows that homeownership may result in more land development than leasehold. Numeric examples suggest (1) public/owner, i.e., the common form of government providing collective goods, may be efficient for more uniform distribution of consumer; (2) rentals can be desirable for “poor” communities; (3) private/owner, such as CID (Common Interest Development) and condominium, is more efficient for “rich” communities; (4) restrictive zoning reduces social surplus, and “rich” community may adopt more restrictive measures. These results may help explain why public institutions are dominant in urban setting and why most private communities are small and located in the suburbs.

AN UNFINISHED PAST: Assassination and the 1974 Land Rent Control Act in Northern Thailand

Abstract: This article examines the struggle for land tenancy reform and the assassination of Farmers’ Federation of Thailand (FFT) leaders in northern Thailand during the period of democratic politics between 14 October 1973 and 6 October 1976 as unresolved, ambiguous, and linked events in the recent Thai past. During the 1973–1976 period, farmers became new political and legal subjects as they fought to pass and then implement the 1974 Land Rent Control Act. Drawing on provincial archival records, the author contextualizes how and why tenancy became a contentious issue between farmers and landlords beginning in the 1950s and then examines the anxious and violent backlash with which their organizing in the 1970s was met by state, para-state, right-wing, and landholding elites. The author interrogates the conditions and effects of the assassinations by writing about the life and death of one of the leaders of the FFT, Intha Sribunruang. The denials by a range of state officials of the political nature of Intha and ...

Principles of Valuation

Abstract: An entry level introduction to valuation methodology, this book gives a straightforward narrative treatment to the subject matter with a multitude of examples and illustrations, contained in an easy to read format.There is a strong emphasis on the practical aspects of valuation, as well as on the principles and application of the full range of valuation methods. This book will serve as an important text for students new to the topic and experienced practitioners alike. Topics covered include: property ownership concepts of value the role of the valuer property inspection property markets and economics residential property prices and the economy commercial and industrial property methods of valuation conventional freehold investment valuations conventional leasehold investment valuations discounted cash flow contemporary growth explicit methods of valuation principles of property investment.

Politics, patronage, and debt bondage in the Pakistani Punjab

Abstract: This thesis examines landlord politics in the rural Pakistani Punjab and contributes to the literature on the state and criminalised politics in South Asia as well as to broader debates on factionalism and violence, class formation, proletarianization and bonded labour The thesis also examines whether, and in what sense, Muslim saints play a role in legitimising and consolidating a highly personalised and hierarchical political order The principal aim of the thesis is to document, and to account for, the entrenchment of violent factional politics in the Punjabi countryside and to consider how this may have forestalled the emergence of horizontal, class-based, political assertiveness Members of the landed elite still wield considerable power over much of the rural population through tenancy relations, patronage and coercion This enables them to obtain votes during elections and to command corvee labour, as well as to enforce debt-bondage The thesis illustrates how this remains true despite the growing, although partial, proletarianization of former tenants and of members of menial and artisan occupational groups One implication of this situation is that in addition to members of marginal landless groups voting for landlords during elections they also frequently fight on their behalf rather than against them Competition for political office remains largely restricted to the landed elite and resembles a zero-sum game where winners appropriate the spoils of power for themselves and, to varying degrees, for their clients The fact that winners take all, combined with the widespread availability of Kalashnikovs and other weapons, means that political competition is intense and involves high levels of violence The thesis analyses how the regional political coalitions of landlord politicians are often structured on the basis of pragmatism, kinship, feuds and local rivalries, rather than on that of ideological commitment to political parties