Showing papers on "Leasehold estate published in 2012"

"You Either Pay More Advance Rent or You Move Out": Landlords/Ladies' and Tenants' Dilemmas in the Low-income Housing Market in Accra, Ghana

Abstract: Policy-makers world-wide are concerned about severe housing problems experienced in cities of the developing world. This paper examines the rental housing situation in Accra, Ghana. It presents findings of a qualitative investigation of the experiences of property owners (n = 21) and tenants (n = 23) in an informal private housing market that caters to the housing needs of an expanding section of Accra residents but lacks an institutional framework for regulating landlord/lady–tenant relations. The specific focus of the investigation is on perceptions of an intensifying tenancy management practice called the advance rent system. Overall, the findings reveal severe rental housing pressures and conflicting relations between renters and property owners rooted in asymmetrical perceptions regarding this system. The paper describes the conditions that shape landlords/ladies’ behaviours towards renters and their reactions to what are generally perceived as fraudulent tenure terms that property owners arbitrarily...

Insecure Land Rights and Share Tenancy: Evidence from Madagascar

Abstract: Most studies of tenurial insecurity focus on its effects on investment. This paper studies the hitherto unexplored relationship between tenurial insecurity and land tenancy contracts. Based on distinct features of formal law and customary rights in Madagascar, this paper augments the canonical model of sharecropping by making the strength of the landlord's property right increasing in the amount of risk she bears within the contract. Using data on landlords' subjective perceptions in rural Madagascar, empirical tests support the hypothesis that insecure property rights drive contract choice but offer little support in favor of the canonical risk sharing hypothesis.

Recession and recovery : the economic history of rural society in Durham, c.1400-1640

Abstract: This thesis explores how rural society adapted to the fifteenth-century recession, and how this affected the ability of their sixteenth-century counterparts to respond to inflation. It does so through three primary sections: the first explores how the Bishops of Durham and the monks of Durham Cathedral Priory responded differently to the fifteenth-century recession and analyses the subsequently divergent development of their estates. By the seventeenth century, all of the Dean and Chapter’s lands were consolidated holdings on 21-year leases, whereas a confused mixture of copyhold and leasehold land had developed on the bishops’ estate. The second section explores the balance of landed power in the Palatinate of Durham from the late-fourteenth to the mid-seventeenth century amongst the laity. This further explores whether the ‘crisis of the aristocracy’ and the ‘rise of the gentry’ are misnomers more adequately phrased in terms of land usage as the ‘rise of agricultural producers’ and the ‘crisis of rentier landlords’. The final section explores how the tenantry of the above estates survived this period, with the gradual stratification of landed society and the emergence of the yeomanry as a social group. It especially focuses upon how the divergent development of the two ecclesiastical estates impacted upon the opportunities and challenges facing the tenants of Durham. The overall conclusion reached by this thesis is that estate management and institutional constraints were often crucial factors in the transformation of the English countryside: these two neighbouring ecclesiastical estates faced broadly the same problems and yet the composition of their estates diverged significantly across this period. Institutional constraints had a profound effect not only on levels of rent, but also the tenure of holdings and ultimately their relative size; three of the most important factors in the formation of agrarian capitalism.

Housing Bubbles: A Tale of Two Cities

Abstract: This study examines the impact of land tenure on housing bubbles. A housing bubble is defined as the portion of housing prices not justified by market fundamentals that determine the consumption demand for housing. While there are many factors that contribute to the formation of housing bubbles, we hypothesize that a housing bubble is likely to be bigger in a market with freehold properties than in one with leasehold properties. This is because the value of the real redevelopment option embedded in a freehold property is affected by changes market expectations to a much greater extent than its use value. Therefore a small change in market sentiment will affect the prices of housing units situated on freehold land more than those on leasehold land. We use a state-space model to empirically estimate the sizes of housing bubbles in Taipei and Hong Kong since the 1980s. The land tenure in the former is freehold, while that in the latter is leasehold. We find that the average size of housing bubbles is larger in Taipei during the period of observation, which supports our hypothesis. The change in Hong Kong’s land policy after July 1997 has effectively turned its land tenure system from one of leasehold to "almost freehold" (i.e., the market expects that leasehold land will be automatically be renewed without payment of a premium upon the expiry of a lease). Our result shows that there has been an increase in the magnitude of housing bubbles in Hong Kong since 1997, which provides further empirical support to our hypothesis. The results also have important policy implications for developing markets where the land tenure systems are still evolving.

Fable of Land Reform: Expropriation and Redistribution in Occupied Japan

Abstract: Land reform will not just reduce rural poverty, write development officials. It can raise productivity. It can promote civic engagement. Scholars routinely concur. Land reform may not always raise productivity and civic engagement, but it can - and during 1947-50 in occupied Japan it did.This account of the Japanese land reform program is a fable, a story officials and scholars tell because they wish it were true. It is not. The program did not hasten productivity growth. Instead, it probably retarded it. The areas with the most land transferred under the program did not experience the fastest rates of productivity growth. They experienced the slowest.Land reform reduced agricultural growth rates by interfering with the allocation of credit. A tenancy contract is a lease, and a lease is a capital market transaction. By precluding the use of leases, land reform effectively increased the cost of capital, reduced the amount of credit, and reduced the accuracy with which investors could target that credit. Banks provide an obvious alternative source of credit -- and post-land-reform, the areas with the fastest growth rates were those areas with the best access to those banks.The fable of land reform rests on a fictitious account of pre-war Japan. Scholars assume tenancy rates reflected poverty levels. They did not. Instead, they reflected levels of social capital. Leases were not most common in the poorest communities. Given their character as capital market transactions, they were most common in those communities where investors could turn to social networks to induce farmers to keep their word.

Preparing homeless people for independent living and its influence on resettlement outcomes

Abstract: > Abstract_ This paper examines associations between the preparation for independent living that homeless people receive and the outcomes of their resettlement. It draws on evidence from FOR-HOME, a longitudinal study in London and three provincial English cities of resettlement outcomes over 18 months for 400 single homeless people. A high rate of tenancy sustainment was achieved: after 15/18 months, 78% were still in the original tenancy, 7% had moved to another tenancy, and 15% no longer had a tenancy. The use of temporary accommodation prior to being resettled and the duration of stay had a strong influence on tenancy sustainment. People who had been in hostels or temporary supported housing for more than 12 months immediately before being resettled, and those who had been in the last project more than six months, were more likely to have retained a tenancy than those who had had short stays and/or slept rough intermittently during the 12 months before resettlement. The findings are consistent with the proposition that the current policy priority in England for shorter stays in temporary accommodation will lead to poorer resettlement outcomes, more returns to homelessness, and a net increase in expenditure on homelessness services.

Land Reforms in India

Abstract: Land Reforms aim at redistributing ownership holding from the viewpoint of social justice and reorganizing operational holdings from the viewpoint of optimum utilization of land. Besides this there is the problem of conditions of tenancy, i.e. the rights and conditions holding land. Land reforms aim at providing security of tenure, fixation of rents, conferment of ownership etc. The entire concept of land reforms aims at abolition of intermediaries and bringing the actual cultivator in direct contact with the state. This paper deals with scope and need of land reforms in Developing countries. This paper basically emphasize on Land Reform in India.,its implication in different parts of India.

Innovative approaches to land acquisition and conservation management : the case of Fish River Station, Northern Territory

Abstract: There has been a dramatic increase in the area that is within the National Reserve System since 2000 – from around 60 million hectares to around 100 million in 2008. This dramatic increase can be attributed to Indigenous Protected Areas and the acquisition of private or leasehold land for either addition to the public protected area estate or management as private protected areas. This growth has also been strategic, increasingly the reservation status of the most underreserved bioregions. However, the reality is the land acquisition has slowed since the global financial crisis of the late 2000s and this has led to new models with different partners coming to the fore. This chapter highlights one of those new models – the acquisition of Fish River Station in the Northern Territory for conservation.

Ownership in complex authorship: A comparative study of joint works in Copyright Law

Abstract: Copyright legislation, at least in its implementation, can be seen as a triumph of international harmonisation. However, in the area of joint works this is not the case. In the comparison of a North American and European country we observe very different outcomes, despite the similar statutory definitions in copyright legislation. However, the explanation for the divergence of application is not to be found in copyright law, but rather the parts of property law that deal with tenancy in common. Starting from this observation the article uses comparative analysis of rules and remedies available in both systems and concludes with recommendations towards a more fair and efficient framework.

An Approach Towards Customized Multi- Tenancy

Abstract: Multi-tenant applications are usually cloud based software services which can serve different users at the same time. This is done using single instance of applications by sharing hardware, infrastructure, data storage and virtualization. To achieve multi tenancy different approaches are there at every layer (Application, Data, hardware).Multi tenancy helps to minimize the effort needed for deployment and maintenance with an adequate level of security and privacy. Now a day the work is going on custom multi tenancy by sharing everything at each layer. This paper will describe the techniques of multi tenancy and how security, flexibility and scalability relate to each other when it comes to multi tenancy for customization.

Is judicial inefficacy increasing the weight of the house property market in Spain? Evidence at the local level

Abstract: The weight of the housing tenancy market in Spain is very low. It is frequently argued that an ineffective judicial system, implying a cumbersome procedure to evict a non-paying tenant or simply requiring a long period to execute a decision, may be an important determinant of the tenancy market’s weakness, as it constrains the effective supply by reducing the profitability of landlords. This research studies this effect econometrically using a panel data approach and exploring differences in judicial efficacy among the Spanish provinces. After controlling for several other factors, this study concludes that the degree of inefficacy of the judicial system has a positive impact on the property share among provinces in Spain.

Tenancy In “Anticommons”? A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of Co-Ownership

Abstract: This article argues that a resource held in tenancy in common is likely to be underused and underinvested, and is thus better characterized as anticommons. Nevertheless, tenancy in common does not necessarily create tragedy, as under most legal regimes each co-tenant has a right to petition for partition at any time, and after partition, new owners are likely to utilize the resource more efficiently. Using data from Taiwan, this article finds that cooperation among co-tenants does not fail as often as the literature has suggested. In 2005–2010, at least 82.5 percent of the co-ownership partitions were conducted through voluntary agreements, while only about 7.5 percent of the partitions were ordered by the court. In addition, using multinomial logistic regression models, this article finds that the court tends to order, and the plaintiffs tend to petition for, partition by sale when partitioning in kind or partial partition would create excessively small plots. (JEL code: K11)

Does sharecropping affect productivity and long-term investment ? evidence from West Bengal's tenancy reforms

Abstract: Although transfer of agricultural land ownership through land reform had positive impacts on productivity, investment, and political empowerment in many cases, institutional arrangements in West Bengal -- which made tenancy heritable and imposed a prohibition on subleasing -- imply that early land reform benefits may not be sustained and gains from this policy remain well below potential. Data from a listing of 96,000 households in 200 villages, complemented by a detailed survey of 1,800 owner-cum tenants, point toward binding policy constraints and large contemporaneous inefficiency of share tenancy that is exacerbated by strong disincentives to investment. A conservative estimate puts the efficiency losses from such arrangements in any period at 25 percent.

An automated method and system for interactive compulsory reporting of lease application adjudication decisions, ongoing tenancy histories and debtor collections

Abstract: A method, system and related program and user interface for collecting residential and commercial tenancies information for the purpose of enriching a database of leasing decisions, rent tradelines, tenancy histories and tenant based social network is provided. Any tenancy application process requiring a system program to track post tenancy application events and collections can employ this method and business model. Mandatory interactive reporting of a plurality of application adjudication decisions for applicant verification and credentialing include move in, automated collection of good standing tenancies, monthly manner of payment histories, tenancy violations such as all types of termination matters, legal actions to terminate a tenancy, collections and enforcement to final move out status.

An Examination of the Tenancy Agreement as a Shield in Property Management in Nigeria

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to critically examine tenancy agreement as a shield in property management in Nigeria. Renting is an essential component of a healthy housing system of a nation. It is observed that for most tenants, signing their tenancy agreement will be their largest financial commitment during the year; hence it is an issue not to be taken lightly. The rental housing sector in Nigeria is bedeviled with acute shortage of housing units (said to be between 14-17million units) this in turn impacts negatively on the sale and rental markets. The study revealed that tenancy agreement gives protection to the stakeholders in the rental housing sector only on paper. This is because many rental agreements between landlords and tenants in Nigeria are personal and informal in nature, concluded outside of any government regulatory framework or formal legal system. This informality and lack of official documentation makes going to court an extremely impractical way of dealing with landlord-tenant conflicts. The provisions of the rent control and recovery of premises laws in Nigeria have been held more in disobedience than in obedience for many years. For effective regulation of the rental property market in Nigeria, it was recommended among others, that a strategic approach to developing a workable rental housing policy should first acknowledge the rental arrangements which already exist and then find flexible, realistic ways to regulate and enforce them.

A conceptual study on landlord and tenant law in peninsular malaysia: a focus on private residential tenancy

Abstract: Unlike other jurisdictions such as the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, Malaysia does not have legislation that deals specifically with landlords and tenants. Thus, a tenancy agreement can be concluded either orally or in writing. As such the rights and obligations of both parties are depending on the terms and conditions of the contract entered by them. The problem would arise if both a landlord and tenant are not equal in footing in terms of bargaining power. Hence their rights either as a landlord or tenant may not be well protected. Obviously there is no specific law dealing with rent control and other related matters that lead to tenancy disputes. These include issues on security and rental deposit, quality and safety of the rented houses, termination, eviction and a mechanism for dispute settlement. While provisions on tenancies and leases can be found in the National Land Code 1965, Contracts Act 1950, Distress Act 1951 and Specific Relief Act 1950, the existing legislation remains rather vague and deals with the issue in piecemeal. The question thus arises whether a comprehensive law in a single statute is really needed to regulate landlords and tenants in Peninsular Malaysia? Adopting the qualitative research methodology, this conceptual paper will focus on the relationship between landlord and tenant in private residential tenancy. It is the aims of this paper to identify key legal issues in landlord and tenant relationship in this sector and to examine the adequacy of existing legal framework. The reported cases on landlord and tenant may become evidences as to the need of a specific landlord and tenant law in Peninsular Malaysia, in particular for private residential tenancy. The best practices from Scotland are taken as reference, whenever necessary. The findings of the research found that based on laws and practices in these two jurisdictions, it is very significant to have specific law to regulate the relationship between landlord and tenant in private residential tenancy in order to protect the interest of all parties involved. Keywords: Landlord and tenant, housing, contract, common law, private residential tenancy.

Menace of recalcitrant tenants in metropolitan Ibadan area's residential property market, Nigeria

Abstract: Purpose – Management factors of recalcitrant tenants in residential premises have become central concerns of many private residential property owners in Ibadan metropolis. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the causes and dimension of the phenomena so as to prevent the loss of rent and encourage investment in rental housing in the city.Design/methodology/approach – The study elicited data through personal and direct administration of questionnaires on 51 estate surveying and valuation firms. The data collected included companies' profiles, years of property management experience, properties in their management portfolio, tenants' selection, category of recalcitrant tenants, handling techniques and influencing factors.Findings – Results indicated that act of non‐compliance and adherence to ethics of property management by estate surveyors and valuers (managers) in the area constitutes a major cause of recalcitrant tenants. Also, estate surveyors and valuers disregard some relevant factors while se...

Uncertain ground: the ‘Ownership Flat’ and urban property in twentieth century Bombay

Abstract: This article examines the changing meaning of property in Bombay over the twentieth century. It suggests that the Ownership Flat, with ownership rather than tenancy in apartment buildings, was a novel form of property that emerged in the city over the course of the century. The Ownership Flat has become the hegemonic form of dwelling in Mumbai and is the desired outcome of far-reaching urban renewal interventions. Yet while the idea of ‘ownership’ implies an unproblematic relationship between ‘owner’ and ‘property,’ this article suggests that the Ownership Flat represented a major shift in the idea of urban property. In particular, while the Ownership Flat was a cuboid in the air enclosed by walls, ceiling and floor, real property as understood by the law meant land and immoveable property upon land. Further, ‘ownership’ of flats in Bombay was exercised through the cooperative housing society, a peculiar legal institution where the society as collective owned the building containing Ownership Flats. A con...

Land tenure and tenancy conditions in relation to rice production in three villages in the red river delta, vietnam

Abstract: Red River Delta is one of the main rice producing regions in Vietnam. With la rge variations in natural conditions, the Red River Delta is suitable for development of different types of crops and animals. In recent years, the importance of fisheries, aquaculture and fruit trees have been increasing. With the average farming area per household in Red River Delta being 0.28 ha (2005), land is a limiting factor in generating sufficient income. Most farmers resort to diversifying their farming to high value crops such as vegetables, fruit trees, and livestock for urban markets, or engagi ng in non-farm activities. The result of this trend is the emergence of tenancy among farmers. This paper attempts to clarify the determination and function of rice land tenancy within the context of the economic structure in three villages in the North o f Vietnam. A series of questionnaire surveys were conducted in 2010- 2011 in the villages of Hung Yen (A), Bac Ninh (B), and Hai Phong (C) Provinces which are located in the Red River Delta. The main findings of the research are as follows. There is an increasing area of non-rice production with the appearance of different kinds of tenurial status in different villages. The tenurial status changes with the age of the farmers, indicating the influence of life -cycle on farmers’ economic behavior. There is also heavy dependence upon kinship ties in landlord-tenant relations. The production function analysis revealed that the increased use of land, labor, seed and fertilizer could lead to a higher rice production. The average rental under the predominant form of tenancy appeared to be equal to the marginal product of land, but under the contracts established between relatives, the average rental was much lower than the marginal product.

The agricultural land tenancy contract from the Islamic perspective and its practice among farmers: A study in Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract: In agricultural activities, there are times when farmers have to lease their land to increase the space area for the agricultural activities and sometimes, it is due to them not owning their own land. Land leasing is done by getting cash or by dividing the agricultural product between the land owner and the farmer at 1/2 or 1/4 profit sharing, depending on the agreement between the two parties. Payment for leasing land by the farmer is done via ijarah contract, whereas land leasing using the agricultural product as payment is done through the muzara‘ah contract (sharecropping). Islamic scholars are unanimous in accepting the practice of land leasing through monetary means; nevertheless, they are mostly not in agreement in the case of land leasing through agricultural produce. Abu Yusuf and those who accepted the leasing of land by paying with agricultural produce are of the opinion that the muzara‘ah contract (sharecropping) can be likened to the mudarabah contract carried out in the business. Whereas Abu Hanifah and those who rejected the muzara‘ah contract felt that it contains elements of gharar . The gharar element existed because the agricultural produce used as payment for land lease does not exist yet when the contract is carried out. Islamic scholars are also not unanimous in determining whether it is the land owner or the farmer who must pay tithe for the produce gained from the leased land. A study was done in Selangor to see the land leasing practice among paddy or rice farmers. Four hundred and three (403) tithe payers were chosen as respondents in this study. The results showed that majority of the paddy farmers lease land using monetary payments compared to paying with their produce. The payment for land lease is done either prior to planting the crops, after harvesting or annually. The study found that the majority of respondents are of the opinion that the responsibility to pay the tithe is the land owner.

An Examination of the Tenancy Agreement as a Shield in Property Management in Nigeria

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to critically examine tenancy agreement as a shield in property management in Nigeria. Renting is an essential component of a healthy housing system of a nation. It is observed that for most tenants, signing their tenancy agreement will be their largest financial commitment during the year; hence it is an issue not to be taken lightly. The rental housing sector in Nigeria is bedeviled with acute shortage of housing units (said to be between 14-17million units) this in turn impacts negatively on the sale and rental markets. The study revealed that tenancy agreement gives protection to the stakeholders in the rental housing sector only on paper. This is because many rental agreements between landlords and tenants in Nigeria are personal and informal in nature, concluded outside of any government regulatory framework or formal legal system. This informality and lack of official documentation makes going to court an extremely impractical way of dealing with landlord-tenant conflicts. The provisions of the rent control and recovery of premises laws in Nigeria have been held more in disobedience than in obedience for many years. For effective regulation of the rental property market in Nigeria, it was recommended among others, that a strategic approach to developing a workable rental housing policy should first acknowledge the rental arrangements which already exist and then find flexible, realistic ways to regulate and enforce them.

Investors in land: Perspectives on investors engaged in transnational land acquisitions in developing countries

Abstract: Transnational land acquisitions have been a sensitive issue on the international agenda since about 2008. Although this phenomenon is by no means new, there is growing evidence that the scale at which foreign land is being acquired has vastly increased in recent years. , widely considered to be the most extensive source for transnational land deals. This was a remarkable increase given that the expansion of agricultural land represented only 4 million ha at the global level. Some two-thirds of these international land deals took place in sub-Saharan Africa, but also in developing regions. Other sources suggest that even more land is involved in transnational deals. The Land Matrix Partnership, a research initiative led by the International Land Coalition (ILC), the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and Agricultural Research for Development (CIRAD), reports that by November 2011, some 203 million ha – an area the size of Western Europe – had been involved in large-scale land acquisitions since 2001, mostly to international investors (Anseeuw et al., 2011). These deals concern acquisitions of more than 200 ha that involve the conversion from small-scale local farming to large-scale commercial use, and include deals under negotiation but not yet approved (Anseeuw, 2011: 18). At the time of reporting (November 2011), 71 million ha had been confirmed by cross-referencing from multiple sources. Most of the confirmed land deals are for agriculture (78%), with the production of bio-fuels as main objective (around 75%); the remaining 22% being for mining, industry, tourism or forestry (Anseeuw et al., 2011: 4). Given the complexity of many land deals and the fact that the surge in transnational land acquisitions is fairly recent (since 2005, accelerating in 2008 and peaking in 2009), much of the land involved has not yet been effectively converted to new uses, a factor that in part explains the confusion about the tenure status of such land. Whatever the precise statistics, it is clear that this is a major phenomenon. Land deals discussed here may involve transfer of property rights (ownership), or more often, certainly in sub-Saharan Africa, comprise leasehold or concessions for varying periods of time. The consequences in terms of access and productive uses of land are of course much the same.

Will farm leasing change rural communities?: Farming practices and community sustainability implications in an Australian dairy region.

Abstract: Some actors in the Australian dairy industry see farm leasing as one way of meeting the current challenges of intergenerational transfer of farm businesses, but such a change in business models can be expected to change aspects of farmers’ practices that impact on local communities, economies and environments. Previous research has found that farmers who do not intend to hand their farm over to their children are less likely to adopt practices aimed at long-term sustainable use of natural resources (Barr & Cary, 2000), but the impact of leasehold tenure on farmers’ contributions to the economies and social life of local communities has not been studied. The broader literature on the social construction of farm practices suggests that they emerge from the complex interplay of many personal, social and structural factors, which are related also to the particular nature of the production system itself. How do these factors change with a move to leasehold tenure? Here we begin an exploration of this question by examining data from focus group discussions carried out with dairy farmers in the Alpine Valleys region of north-east Victoria, Australia. A key finding is that there are many opportunities for various actors to influence the practices of leasehold farmers, and thus to influence the changes to local communities, economies and environments that might be associated with an increased incidence of farm leasing.

The resistance of land-lost farmers in china: 'interests-striving' and 'struggle by order'

Abstract: This paper discusses the nature of activities brought about by land-lost farmers whose collectively-owned land has been expropriated in China Through a case study, it is argued that the ultimate purpose of land-lost farmers' activities is mostly to improve their economic status, thus their responses to land expropriation are characterised as 'interests-striving' activities Their activities are mainly based on a paradox combination of institutionalized and paternalist order and are much contingent under the macro policy of 'maintaining stability' (weiwen, ), thus the most effective means of resources that they try to mobilise can be claimed as 'struggle by order'Key-words: land-lost farmers; resistance; interests-striving; struggle by order(ProQuest: denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted)1 IntroductionSince the mid 1990s, urbanization has become a chief rhythm in Chinese development Rapid industrialization demands land for urban infrastructure, employment placement and housing Large-scale rural land located adjacent to the peripheral area of cities has been being converted into urban land and thus many farmers have lost their land According to some estimates the number of land-lost farmers may well exceed 110 million by 2030 in China (Lu and Ye, 2005) A variety of social issues in contemporary China arise out of land expropriation, such as landlost farmers' resettlement, employment, family register (hukou, ), schooling of children, medical insurance and other welfare provision All of these are occurring during a transitional period from a homogenous and closed social structure towards one which is characterized by diversity and opening up The land-lost farmers' resistance against governmental expropriation has been usually referred to as a time bomb for the state (Woolcock, 2006, p 104)There have been perspectives that land-lost farmers make responses to protect their rights (weiquan, ), following which the interpretative frameworks such as 'policy-based resistance' (Li and O'Brien, 1996) and 'struggle by law' (Yu, 2004) have been theorised However, through empirical fieldwork study, this paper will point out that the concept of 'rights' is not the most appropriate expression in Chinese context, especially in rural China Similarly, neither 'policy-based resistance' nor 'struggle by law' is precise enough to interpret land-lost farmers' responses It will demonstrate what the land-lost farmers mostly strive for and the general nature of their resistance2 Background information21 Predominant interpretative frameworksResistance studies is the field concerned with the struggles of the 'subordinate', 'subaltern', 'oppressed' or 'marginal' populations to combat the 'domination' at the hands of powerful 'elites' Resistance is usually described as the struggle for equality, the fight to end exploitation, and the desire to achieve a more just and humane society (Fletcher, 2001) With regard to this theme, Jenkins' (1982) study concludes that research on peasant resistances has centred on two basic theories: first, a structural theory of class relations pointing to the greater political volatility of smallholder tenancy; second, a historical theory pointing to the strength of traditional village institutions in the midst of the increasing economic insecurity of the peasantry After analysis, he corroborates the basic propositions of the historical theory: peasants rebel because of threats to their access to economic subsistence, not because of the particular form of class relations in which they are enmeshedDuring the process of resistance, the seemingly powerless usually turn out in fact to have a certain amount of power Barbalet (1985) holds that though the governors can exercise exclusive power over subordinate agents, those subordinate agents can mobilize, through resistance, other social resources to influence power relations Jenkins and Perrow (1977) argue that the important variables to account for either the rise or outcome of insurgency pertain to social resources - in their case, sponsorship by established organizations …

Land Tenure, Investment Incentives, and the Choice of Techniques

Abstract: Land Tenure, Investment Incentives, and the Choice of Techniques: Evidence from Nicaragua Oriana Bandiera The choice of cultivation techniques is a key determinant of agricultural productivity and has important consequences for income growth and poverty reduction in developing countries. Further evidence indicates that the result follows from landlords' inability or unwillingness to commit to long-term tenancy contracts rather than from agency costs due to risk aversion or limited liability. This finding is in line with the observation that since a tenant's effort affects tree productivity in the future, proper incentives can be provided only by offering a long-term contract that makes the tenant's pay conditional on future output. Nevertheless, models of moral hazard with either risk aversion or limited liability indicate that tenants' wealth determines the cost of providing incentives for noncontractible effort and hence the choice of cultivation techniques when these are complementary to effort. To thi...

Does tenure review in New Zealand's South Island give rise to rents?

Abstract: Under ‘tenure review', a New Zealand pastoral lessee surrenders part of his leasehold to conservation and acquires a freehold interest in the remainder. Since 1992, 28 new freeholders paid the Crown $6.9 million for freehold rights to 101,752 ha, then sold 46% of that land for $135.7 million. We model tenure review as a sequential real option – first to acquire freehold, then to sell all or part of the new freehold. We find little evidence that the Crown accounted for the latter option value when negotiating tenure review, and conclude that the capital gains enjoyed by former lessees are rents.