Resource information
This paper uses a rural household survey
dataset collected in 2006 and 2008 to investigate the impact
of a market-based land resettlement project in southern
Malawi. The program provided a conditional cash and land
transfer to poor families to relocate to larger plots of
farm land. The average treatment effect of the program is
estimated using a difference-in-difference matching
technique based on propensity score matching; qualitative
information complement the analysis to ensure unobservable
characteristics do not bias the findings. As expected, the
results show a significant effect on landholdings and
agricultural production, with land size increasing and maize
production increasing by more than 100 kilograms relative to
the control. However, the impacts on food security and
asset holdings were mixed. Households that relocated great
distances had systematically lower impacts than those
households that stayed within their district of origin
because they had to adapt to unfamiliar agro-ecological,
cultural, and market environments. Impacts also varied
across gender of the household head; female-headed
beneficiary households increased their productive and
consumption assets significantly, while male-headed
households increased their asset holdings less so.
