Leasehold estate

About: Leasehold estate is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1589 publications have been published within this topic receiving 21480 citations. The topic is also known as: leasehold & tenancy.

Credit rationing, tenancy, productivity, and the dynamics of inequality

Abstract: Why, when given the same resources, might productivity be lower on farms operated through sharecropping than on owner-run farms? The reason is that sharecropping, much less wage contracts, cannot overcome the divergence of interests between those who till the land and those who own it. Only land redistribution can do that. This paper presents notes toward a general equilibrium theory of land tenancy that suggest how changes in technology and publicly provided infrastructure can affect the equilibrium distribution of land in countries where credit is rationed. When credit to famers is rationed, changes in technology can increase the inequality in landholdings - with a long term increase in share tenancy. This is turn might reduce productivity, at least partially offsetting the initial improvements. The paper suggests that the development of effective rural financial institutions would reduce the likelihood of these negative effects on equality and productivity. It further cautions though that past attempts in creating such institutions have failed because of a lack of accountability and of enforcement procedures.

Outside the autochthon-migrant configuration: access to land, land conflicts and inter-ethnic relationships in a former pioneer area of lower Côte d'Ivoire

Abstract: This paper discusses land issues in a specific Ivorian context: that of a former no man's land located in lower Cote d'Ivoire. In this region, one does not find the autochthon-migrant dichotomy that generally structures the land issue in southern Cote d'Ivoire. This situation therefore offers an opportunity to document the conditions of access to land and inter-ethnic relationships in a situation characterised by the lack of autochthonous stakeholders. In this context, land rights and land transfers have been moulded by the interplay between migration flows, the dynamics of the smallholder plantation economy, and the rise of land markets. The picture that results is a patchwork, in terms of ethnic land control, where land rights are quite secure. The crucial land issue arises from the active land lease market, with a large acreage of land rented out to Burkinabe pineapple producers – again, without major conflicts. This situation is contrasted with the neighbouring Aboure country, where a conflict over tenancy practices arose in 2001.

Green mark certification: does the market understand?

Abstract: A corollary to the green building revolution is the certification of green buildings by relevant organizations. The pertinent question is whether the market understands the certification. The paper addresses the issue via a quantitative (hedonic model) and psychographic (survey) study of the Singapore residential green building market. The results reveal that green certification commands a statistically significant premium. However, the market is confused by the different tiers of certification as evidenced by incommensurate premia for the different tiers. Furthermore, the fact that the premium varies with tenure (freehold/ leasehold) and location after controlling for all other attributes may imply that the premium may not be solely attributable to green certification.

Leasehold or Freehold? Leader-Eviction Rules in the British Conservative and Labour Parties

Abstract: This paper examines how leader-eviction rules affect the security of tenure of party leaders in the British Conservative and Labour parties. It sets out a framework for analysing and comparing evic...

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.