Transformations in Property Rights and Poverty in Rural Tanzania

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)提供资金的。Kelly M.Askew博士和Howard Stein博士(密歇根大学)将研究地方一级经济机构在后社会主义背景下有计划的转型对生计的影响。研究人员将验证这样一种理论，即赋予土地所有权将通过将公共财产资源转化为私人资源来减少贫困。这项研究将在坦桑尼亚进行，那里所有土地的所有权长期以来都属于国家，但现在重新强调土地所有权，以促进私有制的好处。由于该项目仍在进行中，研究人员可以利用能够将一个已经完成标题的地区(Mbozi)与另一个刚刚开始的地区(Iringa)进行比较的“自然实验”。研究人员将使用各种研究方法，包括实地观察、半结构化和结构化访谈、定量调查和地理信息系统数据收集。他们将从农民、牧民、政府官员、银行人员、非政府组织和坦桑尼亚专家那里收集信息。其目标是：(1)审查和比较群体和个人如何界定土地权的性质；(2)确定土地权正规化过程中的赢家和输家；(3)确定产权对农村生计的影响(例如，获得信贷、土地生产力、土地价值、土地市场活动)；(4)更好地了解产权如何影响土地纠纷及其解决办法；(5)确定产权对农村人民实际和感知的保有权保障的影响。这项研究之所以重要，是因为它将有助于社会科学的“制度中断”理论，即当现有机构和支持社会文化的系统由于规则、组织的变化或能力的侵蚀而不再有能力协调经济活动时会发生什么。这项研究还将有助于制定土地权利管理的政策建议、指导方针和干预措施，作为世界各地有计划的扶贫战略的一部分。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Dr. Kelly M. Askew and Dr. Howard Stein (University of Michigan) will undertake research on the livelihood effects of planned transformation of local-level economic institutions in post-socialist contexts. The researchers will test the theory that giving title to land will reduce poverty by turning common property resources into private resources. The research will be carried out in Tanzania where title over all land was long vested in the state, but where there is now a renewed emphasis on land titling to foster the benefits of private ownership. Because the program is still in process, the researchers can take advantage of the "natural experiment" of being able to compare a district (Mbozi) where titling has been completed with another district (Iringa) in which it has just begun.The researchers will use a variety of research methods including field observations, semi-structured and structured interviews, quantitative surveys, and GIS data collection. They will gather information from farmers, pastoralists, government officials, banking personnel, non-governmental organizations, and Tanzanian experts. Their objectives are: (1) to examine and compare how groups and individuals define the nature of land rights; (2) to identify the winners and losers in the formalization of land rights; (3) to determine the impact of titling on rural livelihoods (e.g., access to credit, land productivity, land values, land market activity); (4) to better understand how titling affects the land disputes and their resolution; and (5) to identify the impact of titling on rural people's actual and perceived security of tenure. The research is important because it will contribute to social science theories of "institutional hiatus," or, what happens when existing institutions and supporting sociocultural systems are no longer capable of coordinating economic activity due to shifts in the rules, organizations, or erosion in capacities. The research also will help formulate policy recommendations, guidelines, and interventions for the management of land rights as part of planned poverty alleviation strategies throughout the world.