Inheritance, tenure security and the functioning of rental markets in rural Pakistan

This thesis provides empirical insights into the manner by which rural farmers in Pakistan access farmland using the Pakistan Rural Household Panel Survey round 3.5 conducted during 2014-2015. The results suggest that approximately 86% of owned land is inherited, 13% is purchased and the remaining 1% is acquired through other means (e.g., gifts, illegal settlements). Moreover, variation in ownership documentation does not appear to affect perceptions of tenure security for inherited land. An important component of this study is an exploration of rental arrangements. Forty percent of survey respondents rent-in farmland, half of these are landless. Hence, rental arrangements are an important pathway by which land is redistributed to enable agricultural production. Regression results also confirm that the rental market contributes to redistribute land from the land-rich to the land-poor despite signs of friction in the market. These findings are relevant to ongoing efforts to improve land governance and agricultural production in rural areas of Pakistan. McCain Foundation