Smallholder farmers' investment decisions and the efficiency of resource allocation depend on the security of land tenure. This paper develops a simple model that captures essential institutional features of rural land markets in Ghana, including the dependence of future rights over land on current cultivation and land rental decisions. The model predictions guide the evaluation of a pilot land titling intervention that took place in an urbanizing area located in the Central Region of Ghana. The evaluation is based on a regression discontinuity design combined with three rounds of household survey data collected over a period of six years. The analysis finds strong markers for the program's success in registering land in the targeted program area. However, land registration does not translate into agricultural investments or increased credit taking. Instead, treated households decrease their amount of agricultural labor, accompanied by only a small reduction of agricultural production and no changes in productivity. In line with this result, households decrease their landholdings amid a surge in land valuations. The analysis uncovers important within-household differences in how women and men respond differentially to the program. There appears to be a general shift to nonfarm economic activities, and women's business profits increased considerably

Foundational to the monitoring of international goals on land ownership and rights are the household survey respondents who provide the required individual-disaggregated data. Leveraging two national surveys in Malawi that differed in their approach to respondent selection, this study shows that, compared with the international best practice of privately interviewing adults about their personal asset ownership and rights, the business-as-usual approach of interviewing the most knowledgeable household member(s) on adult household members' ownership of and rights to assets leads to (i) higher rates of exclusive reported and economic ownership of agricultural land among men, and (ii) lower rates of joint reported and economic ownership among women. Further, substantial agreement exists on agricultural landowners and rights holders, as reported by the privately-interviewed spouses. When discrepancies emerge, proxies for greater household status for women are positively associated with the scenarios where women attribute at least some land ownership to themselves

• Cowboys and capitalists
• Crooked lines
• Capitol capital
• Cattle convention
• Changes in the wind
• The big open
• Empire
• Closeout

The Texas state constitution of 1876 set aside three million acres of public land in the Texas Panhandle in exchange for construction of the state's monumental red-granite capitol in Austin. That land became the XIT Ranch, briefly one of the most productive cattle operations in the West. The story behind the legendary XIT Ranch, told in full in this book, is a tale of Gilded Age business and politics at the very foundation of the American cattle industry. The capitol construction project, along with the acres that would become XIT, went to an Illinois syndicate led by men influential in politics and business. Unable to sell the land, the Illinois group, backed by British capital, turned to cattle ranching to satisfy investors. In tracing their efforts, which expanded to include a satellite ranch in Montana, historian Michael M. Miller demythologizes the cattle business that flourished in the late-nineteenth-century American West, paralleling the United States' first industrial revolution. The XIT Ranch came into being and succeeded, Miller shows, only because of the work of accountants, lawyers, and managers, overseen by officers and a board of seasoned international capitalists. In turn, the ranch created wealth for some and promoted the expansion of railroads, new towns, farms, and jobs. Though it existed only from 1885 to 1912, from Texas to Montana the operation left a deep imprint on community culture and historical memory. Describing the Texas capitol project in its full scope and gritty detail, XIT cuts through the popular portrayal of great western ranches to reveal a more nuanced and far-reaching reality in the business and politics of the beef industry at the close of America's Gilded Age.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Adding a module designed to measure land tenure-related Sustainable Development Goals indicators to the 2018 round of Zambia's labor force survey shows low transferability and high levels of tenure insecurity. Having a title is associated with greater transferability and reduced insecurity. Although demand for titles, including willingness to pay, is high, current policies limit the scope for tenure regularization and reinforce rather than reduce gender discrimination. Efforts in this direction need to be preceded by (i) procedural reform to reduce costs, streamline procedures, and make them gender-sensitive; (ii) institutional change to increase the efficiency of service delivery and ensure record maintenance; and (iii) legal change to recognize customary tenure and improve land management and transferability. Adding the Sustainable Development Goals land tenure module to ongoing surveys has the potential to provide the evidence base needed to design results-based approaches for the land sector and reliably track progress.

• Cover; CLAIMING FREEDOM; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; List of Illustrations; Acknowledgments; INTRODUCTION Claiming Freedom in the Lowcountry; 1 THE SLAVEâ#x80; #x99; S DREAM; 2 WAR AND FREEDOM; 3 â#x80; #x9C; FULL AND FAIR COMPENSATIONâ#x80; #x9D; ; 4 THE STATE OF FREEDOM IS THE STATE OF SELF-RELIANCE; CONCLUSION; Appendix; Notes; Bibliography; Index; About the Author.

Claiming Freedom is a noteworthy and dynamic analysis of the transition African Americans experienced as they emerged from Civil War slavery, struggled through emancipation, and then forged on to become landowners during the Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction period in the Georgia lowcountry. Karen Cook Bell's work is a bold study of the political and social strife of these individuals as they strived for and claimed freedom during the nineteenth century. Bell begins by examining the meaning of freedom through the delineation of acts of self-emancipation prior to the Civil War. Consistent with the autonomy that they experienced as slaves, the emancipated African Americans from the rice region understood citizenship and rights in economic terms and sought them not simply as individuals for the sake of individualism, but as a community for the sake of a shared destiny. Bell also examines the role of women and gender issues, topics she believes are understudied but essential to understanding all facets of the emancipation experience. It is well established that women were intricately involved in rice production, a culture steeped in African traditions, but the influence that culture had on their autonomy within the community has yet to be determined. A former archivist at the National Archives and Records Administration, Bell has wielded her expertise in correlating federal, state, and local records to expand the story of the all-black town of 1898 Burroughs, Georgia, into one that holds true for all the American South. By humanizing the African American experience, Bell demonstrates how men and women leveraged their community networks with resources that enabled them to purchase land and establish a social, political, and economic foundation in the rural and urban post-war era.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• [Volume 1]. Introduction
• Current law and legislative history
• Overview of the new regime
• The right to a lease extension
• The right of collective freehold acquisition
• Qualifying criteria : current law and criticisms
• Qualifying criteria : proposals for reform
• Qualifying criteria : exceptions and qualifications
• [Volume 2]. Procedure : current law and criticisms
• Procedure : proposals for reform
• Dispute resolution
• Costs
• Valuation : current law and criticisms
• Valuation : options for reform
• Intermediate and other leasehold interests
• Consultation questions.

This publication provides methodological guidance for reporting on Target 5.a of the Sustainable Development Goals, namely to "Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws." Progress towards this target is measured through two indicators that focus on ownership and/or control over land. This step-by-step guide on the "how" of reporting and measuring progress on indicator 5.a.2. covers the collection of information on the legal and policy framework, the assessment of each of the proxies, and reporting.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)