This paper is motivated by the emphasis on secure property rights as a determinant of economic development in recent literature. The authors use village and household level information from about 800 villages throughout China to explore whether legal reform increased protection of land rights...

The authors develop a model of land leasing with agents characterized by unobserved heterogeneity in ability and presence of an off-farm labor market. In this case, decentralized land rental may contribute to equity and efficiency goals and may have several advantages over administrative...

The Tumbuka are normally described as patrilineal where inheritance of property including land, cattle and village headmanship is from father to son. There is evidence that initially the Tumbuka were matrilineal. In this society, village heads are normally men, and land and other property are...