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Land Tenure Insecurity as an Investment Incentive: The Case of Migrant Cocoa Farmers and Settlers in Ivory Coast

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  • Catherine Bros
  • Alain Desdoigts
  • Hugues Kouadio
Abstract
This study sets forth a positive relationship between tenure insecurity and investment over different time horizons among cocoa farmers in Ivory Coast. This positive relationship stands in stark contrast to results found in many related studies. We argue that this difference stems from the types of crops considered and depends, in particular, on whether one considers annual and/or perennial crops. Given that cultivating perennial crops such as cocoa requires large upfront investments over a long period of time, retaining control over land in the long run is essential, especially when the trees reach full maturity. According to some theoretical arguments, investing is a way of retaining such control when the farmer does not have administrative rights. Our results show that cocoa farmers whose status remains precarious in terms of tenure security (migrants) have a higher propensity to invest, especially when the tree is about to yield substantially. This study thus underlines the need to account for the life cycle of crops and the associated revenue streams when assessing the relationship between tenure (in-)security and investment.

Suggested Citation

  • Catherine Bros & Alain Desdoigts & Hugues Kouadio, 2019. "Land Tenure Insecurity as an Investment Incentive: The Case of Migrant Cocoa Farmers and Settlers in Ivory Coast," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 28(2), pages 147-175.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jafrec:v:28:y:2019:i:2:p:147-175.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jae/ejy019
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Deininger, Klaus & Xia, Fang & Kilic, Talip & Moylan, Heather, 2021. "Investment impacts of gendered land rights in customary tenure systems: Substantive and methodological insights from Malawi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    2. Francesco Cordaro & Alain Desdoigts, 2021. "Bounded Rationality, Social Capital and Technology Adoption in Family Farming: Evidence from Cocoa-Tree Crops in Ivory Coast," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-20, July.
    3. Hoang Huu Dinh & Shyam Basnet & Justus Wesseler, 2023. "Impact of Land Tenure Security Perception on Tree Planting Investment in Vietnam," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-23, February.
    4. Giuliana Vinci & Marco Ruggeri & Laura Gobbi & Marco Savastano, 2024. "Social Life Cycle Assessment of Cocoa Production: Evidence from Ivory Coast and Ghana," Resources, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-19, October.
    5. Deininger,Klaus W. & Ali,Daniel Ayalew, 2022. "How Urban Land Titling and Registry Reform Affect Land and Credit Markets : Evidencefrom Lesotho," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10043, The World Bank.
    6. Hadera, Amanuel & Tadesse, Tewodros & Zeweld, Woldegebrial & Tesfay, Girmay & Gebremedhin, Bereket, 2024. "Trust, tenure security and investment in high-value forests," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    7. Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Deininger, Klaus, 2024. "Using registry data to assess gender-differentiated land and credit market effects of urban land policy reform: Evidence from Lesotho," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    tenure security; investment time horizons; crop life cycle; outsiders; Ivory Coast;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa
    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights

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