| Abstract: |
"The theorized impact of land tenure and titling on access to credit has
produced mixed results in the empirical literature. Land tenure and titling is
hypothesized to increase access to credit because of the enhanced land
security provided and the newfound ability to use land as collateral. Using
land as collateral and obtaining access to credit are paramount concerns in
Uganda and in all of Africa, as greater emphasis is placed on the need to
modernize the agricultural system. This paper uses a new approach in
evaluating whether land tenure and titling have an impact on access to credit
for rural households in Uganda. The new approach includes comparisons across
four categories: (1) households who have customary land with versus without a
customary certificate, (2) households who have freehold land with versus
without a title, (3) households with a title or certificate having freehold
versus customary tenure, and (4) households without a title or certificate
having freehold versus customary tenure. Each comparison is then evaluated for
the impact on access to any form of credit, formal credit, and informal
credit. This analysis allows for an in-depth look into which element, tenure
or title, is impacting access to credit and to which type of credit, formal or
informal. To conduct this analysis, matching techniques are used, including
propensity score matching and the Abadie and Imbens matching method. These two
methods contain both strengths and weaknesses that allow the results to
support to one another. The only significant finding of the matching was a
positive impact on access to credit of freehold without title over customary
without certificate. Results imply that tenure, not title, impacts credit
access for rural households in Uganda." from authors' abstract |