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...

We present a real options model of a firm's make-or-buy decision under demand uncertainty. "Making" is subject to decreasing returns to scale, fixed costs and capital investment. "Buying" happens at a fixed price and requires no investment. Three distinct procurement regimes endogenously arise:...

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...

Institutional overlap emerges not only as an unintended by-product of purposive state action but also as its deliberate result. In two ways, this article expands existing research on the causes and consequences of institutional overlap. First, we establish that three different types of...