I present a theory to account for the emergence of land rights in a subsistence agricultural economy. An important feature is that, to maximize tax revenue, an authoritarian state must devise land rights to overcome the informational constraint in registering the population for tax collection....

I investigate how the first large-scale randomized-controlled trial of a land formalization reform in rural Western Africa affects villagers' cooperativeness and trust. With the reform, land plots traditionally characterized by collective property and informal possession are mapped, parcels...

Smallholder farmers usually face insecure land rights and limited social protection, so that farmland serves as an important safety net against income shocks. Safety-net value of farmland makes the loss of land rights extra costly and strengthens the well-documented incentive for...

Since joining the EU in 1995, Austria has been subject to EU regulations including the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The opening of the markets to consumers and producers and the reduction of producer prices to EU level represented big challenges in the early years. Vast adaptation measures...