Unequal Property Rights: A Study of Land Right Inequalities in Rwanda

Abstract

Most measures of inequality focus on the distribution of income and resources. A potentially important additional source of inequality stems from unequal property rights protection. The aim of the present paper was to examine the existence and patterns of systematic within-country inequalities in effective land rights in Rwanda. While a large qualitative literature discusses the comparative land rights of different groups, there is a lack of systematic quantitative evidence on the existence of land right inequalities. The results of estimations drawing on data on the land tenure arrangements of over 17 000 Rwandan households do indeed suggest within-country inequalities in land rights. In particular, despite recent reform efforts to improve women's land rights, a gender gap in land rights was observed that persisted throughout the 2005–2011 period studied, highlighting that institutional development takes time and that changes in de jure legislation do not automatically translate into changes in effective rights. Moreover, conflict-displaced households and households resettled to newly constructed village settlements all report weaker land rights than their respective comparison groups.

JEL Classification::

• D02
• K11
• O12
• O55
• Q15
• R14
• R52

Notes

¹ For a discussion of group (or horizontal) inequalities, see Stewart et al. (2005).

² Because ethnicity has been a very sensitive issue in Rwanda since the genocide, and since the survey data contain no information on ethnic group affiliations, I do not explore possible land right inequalities along ethnic lines.

³ The survey only asks respondents below the age of 20 of whether their parents are alive, and there is no information on when parents died.

⁴ Running the equivalent estimations for a pooled (2005/2006+2011) sample and interacting all variables with a dummy for belonging to the 2011 sample, the interaction effect between the female household head dummy and the 2011 dummy is not close to being statistically significant in any of the estimations.

⁵ Furthermore, with respect to the household composition controls (the estimates are available upon request), whereas being married and being a widow/er are positively related to rights over total land in both sub-samples, household size has a positive and statistically significant parameter in the 2011 sub-sample only, and the household share of adults does not prove to be significantly related to land rights in either sub-sample. Regarding the household resource controls (which as noted should be interpreted with care), as expected, households with larger and less-fragmented land holdings tend to report stronger rights, and similarly, households that are better educated and better off also tend to have better land rights.