Is land certification pro-poor? Evidence from Ethiopia

The establishment of secure and easily transferable land rights are a key component of rural development and poverty reduction strategies in many developing countries. In this paper, we use data on the Ethiopian land certification program to examine the impact of land certification on consumption expenditures of poor rural households in Ethiopia. We find that land certification significantly improves the welfare of poor rural households, as measured through changes in consumption expenditure, and that the magnitude of these effects increases with the duration of land certificate ownership. We further show that rental market participation increased after certification and is one of the primary channels through which land certification affects consumption expenditure outcomes.