PhD Project Summary
| Name | Ms Thanyaporn CHANKRAJANG |
|---|---|
| PhD Title | Rural land right security and its effects within and beyond the agricultural sector: Evidence from partial land right entitlement in Thailand |
| Project information | The main purpose of the thesis is to contribute to the understanding of the impacts of the security of rural land rights on developmental outcomes with a specific focus on Thailand. Using province-level panel data and instrumental variable strategy, the thesis examines the impacts of Thailand's SPK4-01 rural land titling programme on various economic outcomes both within and beyond the country's agricultural sector. By exploiting the fact that SPK-04 titles are non-tradable and cannot be used as collateral to obtain private sector loans, the thesis is able to uniquely associate estimates of the programme's impact with the increased security of tenure that the titles have conferred upon their holders. Overall, the thesis consists of three main empirical studies, which examine the impacts of the SPK-04 titling program on agricultural performance, employment diversification outside of agriculture and schooling outcomes respectively. For agricultural performance, it is estimated that titling has improved: (i) second rice productivity; (ii) the intensity of land use; (iii) land-related investment; and (iv) soil quality. In the second study, titling is found to have had a similarly positive impact in encouraging the movement of labour out of agriculture, a result which can be partially explained by induced improvements in farm productivity. Although SPK 4-01 titling, independently, is found to have no significant effect on urbanisation, its impact depends significantly on within-province transport infrastructure. More specifically, rural land right security increases urbanisation more in provinces with poorer road networks. In other words, it leads to urban concentration and urban non-farm diversification only when it is relatively costly to commute within the province. Finally, in the third study, estimates suggest that SPK-04 titles have succeeded in raising pre-primary school enrollment for girls in rural areas and average levels of expenditure on education by agricultural households. There has been no impact, however, on enrollment: (i) for boys; (ii) at higher levels of schooling for both boys and girls; and (iii) in urban areas. The thesis illustrates that enhanced security of land rights by itself, even in an environment of limited pledgeability and non-tradability, can have significant economic impacts both within and beyond a developing country's agricultural sector. |
| Supervisor | Dr Mark Roberts (REUA/CCEPP) |