It is often suggested that the poor are credit-rationed due to their lack of formal collateral. Using a household survey from Indonesia, we estimate the impact of having a land title on formal credit access. Adopting an instrumental variable approach, we find that having a formal title significantly increases a household's probability of ever having had a formal loan and the observed loan amount. Why land titles increase access to credit is still not clear.

The material contained herein is supplementary to the article named in the title and published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Volume 90, Number 1, February 2008.

In this study, main aim is to investigate the sustainable management according to the water and sediment yield of Kucukelmalı pond basin. Potential soil loss was calculated by using the USLE equation for the basin.

Bu çalışmada, Küçükelmalı Gölet Havzasının arazi kullanım planı toprak koruma önlemlerine göre hazırlanmıştır. Havzadaki potansiyel toprak kayıpları USLE eşitliği kullanılarak belirlenmiştir.

Based on a case study of two Moldovan regions, the paper challenges the favourable assessment of recently established peasant farms in a World Bank study by LERMAN et al. (1998).

This paper examines the impact of having a preservation program on the rate of farmland loss for a 50 year period (1949-1997) in six Mid-Atlantic States: Delaware, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Because farmland loss is affected by changing agricultural profitability, demand for land for non-agricultural purposes, and farmers' alternative employment opportunities, we include variables to control for these factors as well.

This paper analyzes the effects of insecure property rights over land on the functioning of the land rental market in the Dominican Republic. It shows that insecurity of property rights not only reduces the level of activity of the land rental market, but also causes market segmentation. A principal-agent framework is used to model the utility maximization of both the tenant and the landlord, where the landlord accounts for the risk of losing the land when it is not traded within a narrow local circle of confidence.

This research uses field-level data from Burkina Faso to ask what determines farmers' investment in two well-known soil and water conservation techniques: field bunds (barriers to soil and water runoff), and microcatchments (small holes in which seeds and fertilizers are placed). Survey data for 1993 and 1994 are used to estimate Tobit functions, compute elasticities of adoption and intensity of use, perform robustness tests and estimate alternative models.

A theoretical analysis of equilibrium contracts between risk neutral landlords and tenants when tenants' soil exploitation is non-contractible indicates that landlords will overinvest in conservation structures. An empirical model using farm-level data provides evidence that investment in contractible soil conservation measures is greater on rental land.

Farmers' ability to leave agriculture is an important and debated topic in China and other countries. Many scholars believe China's unique land tenure policies prevent farmers from leaving agriculture. This paper examines the hypothesis that China's land tenure system deters exit from agriculture using household level data from Northeast China.

Following the example of Tiffen et al. on Machakos, Kenya, new macro-based evidence was collected in Machakos, the neighbouring Kitui district and in Benin, Cameroon and the Philippines, to assess the factors à la Boserup, inducing transitions towards sustainable land management, such as terracing, stone bands etc. We find that relative scarcity of land can be seen to induce technical changes, in the sense of Hayami & Ruttan, that correspond to the new
relative scarcity, making higher man-land ratios the optimal choice.

This paper tries to provide some solutions regarding farm consolidation and to diminish the share of subsistence farming, by analysing demographic tendencies, the ownership structure of agricultural land and the structure of the rural workforce, in Romania. The emphasis will fall on the following main solutions: the withdrawal of agricultural pensioners from the agricultural activity in return for an additional pension (before 2007) and the application of the early retirement scheme after joining the EU (probably in 2007).

The world-wide trend of a growing organic sector is also detectable in South Africa. From 2000 to 2002 the number of farmers who had converted to organic farming in South Africa increased sixfold, and although organic farming still accounts only for a minute percentage of the total number agricultural producers, the increasing importance of this sector is apparent. Based on survey results, information was gathered about organic farmers in South Africa concerning socio-demographic aspects, farming operations, motivations and problems of the conversion process.