Blockchain Papers

Avinandan Taron, Surajit Ghosh, Giriraj Amarnath

No abstract is available for this record.

Helena Rong

No abstract is available for this record.

Abdu Muwonge

Decentralization is a key governance reform which many developing countries have embarked on. Local governments are expected to use their informational advantage to improve the delivery of public goods. This result implied by Tiebout’s (1956) model requires fully informed citizens who “vote with their feet.” The model’s application to developing countries has been limited, since local decisions may not be responsive to local demands. Practitioners are shifting to innovations that minimize institutional constraints so that decentralized programs can lead to improved outcomes. Examples of such innovative ways include decentralized agricultural extension programs, which embrace farmers’ empowerment, local government, and private sector participation. Few impact evaluation studies on agricultural extension have combined qualitative and quantitative methods. This dissertation contributes to the literature by applying these methods and survey data to study the impact of a decentralized extension program in Uganda, known as the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) on the value of farm production per acre. The program is non-randomly assigned to local governments and farmers self-select in or out within participating sub-counties. Using a sample of 305 participating and non-participating farmers and local government assessment indicators as instruments, we cannot reject the null that the NAADS program has had an impact. The 2SLS results show no program impact; however, the OLS results show that the program had a positive impact on the value of farm production per acre of about 20 percent. Qualitative results show that NAADS farmers: participate in local decision making processes through farmers’ institutions; have increased knowledge on farming; and practice enterprise diversification. The quantitative finding must be treated with caution; for example, the study did not account for spillover effects. The NAADS program faces challenges inherent in Uganda’s decentralized structure; particularly the low financial and human capacity, and the weak monitoring at the local level. The policy implications include: the need to strengthen farmers’ institutions; development of a marketing strategy; clear policy guidelines for local government support to NAADS; improved coordination of NAADS activities among line ministries; need for additional resources for NAADS activities; and improved capacity of service providers.

Nir Kshetri

The lack of a comprehensive property rights system is an issue of pressing concern in most economies in the Global South. Property rights-related issues have important social, economic and environmental consequences. This paper argues that one of the most impactful uses of blockchain in the Global South could be in the creation, implementation and enforcement of property rights. The article provides an in‐depth analysis of a blockchain-based land registry project in the Andhra Pradesh state of India. It also delves into facilitators for and barriers to a large-scale adoption and deployment of blockchain for this purpose. The paper shows that with blockchain, the benefits of digitisation of land records can be amplified and some of the major drawbacks of digitisation can be avoided.

Desiree Daniel, Chinwe Ifejika Speranza

In this article, we discuss the potential of blockchain technology in addressing the documentation of users’ land rights in the informal land rental market. Blockchain technology is a peer-to-peer protocol that can be leveraged to keep track of transactions over the internet. Publicised for its use in the bitcoin revolution, the technology provides transparency and traceability that can be used in the management of land rights. When it comes to the formalisation of land rights, blockchain technology promises to authenticate owners and other users of land, and provides a fixed ledger of land use rights transactions. At present, blockchain technology is being explored as a proof of concept in several countries to track land titles (state to individual). We extend the idea to capture the granting of land use rights (individual to individual) making use of the decentralisation, peer-to-peer nature of blockchain technology. While the technology is not a panacea to all land administration challenges, it can offer an effective means to manage land transactions, provide digital documentation to actors in the informal land rental market and reduce inefficiency in land systems. However, the uptake of the technology in land administration is limited by human related factors. These limitations include, but are not limited to, the accuracy of data being entered into the system, the ability of the system to facilitate data preservation, pre-existing institutional and legal pillars, and the digital divide across communities. Part of overcoming these barriers requires the political will of governments to invest in digital technologies and develop institutional capacities to overcome current limitations to bring land management into the industry 4.0 era.

Kwabena Mintah, Kingsley Tetteh Baako, Godwin Kavaarpuo, Gideon Kwame Otchere

Purpose The land sector in Ghana, particularly skin lands acquisition and title registration are fraught with several issues including unreliable record-keeping systems and land encroachments. The paper explores the potential of blockchain application in skin lands acquisition and title registration in Ghana with the aim of developing a blockchain-enabled framework for land acquisition. The purpose of this paper is to use the framework as a tool towards solving some of the loopholes in the process that leads to numerous issues bedeviling the current system. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts a systematic literature review approach fused with informal discussions with key informants and leverages on the researchers’ own experiences to conceptualize blockchain application in skin lands acquisition in Ghana. Findings Problems bedeviling skin lands acquisition and title registration emanated from the issuance of allocation notes, payment of kola money and use of a physical ledger to document land transactions. As a result, the developed framework was designed to respond to these issues and deal with the problems. As the proposed blockchain framework would be a public register, it was argued that information on all transactions on a specific parcel of land could be available to the public in real-time. This enhances transparency and possibly resolves the issue of encroachments and indeterminate land boundaries because stakeholders can determine rightful owners of land parcels before initiating transactions. Practical implications Practically, blockchain technology has the potential to deal with the numerous issues affecting the smooth operation of skin lands acquisition and title registration in Ghana. Once the enumerated issues are resolved, there will be certainty of title to and ownership of land and property to drive investments because lenders could more easily ascertain owners of land parcels that could be used as collateral for securing loans. Similarly, property developers and land purchasers could easily identify rightful owners for land transactions. The government would be able to identify owners for land and property taxation. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature on blockchain and application to land acquisition and title registration with a focus on a specific customary land ownership system.

Ningning Lang, Cun Liu, Ya Zhao

This paper divides China’s land finance into two parts: land transfer income and land tax, then uses K-means clustering method to classify the dependence of 31 provinces on land finance into severe, sub-severe, moderate, and mild. It is found that the dependence on land finance of provinces across the country has declined from east to west. And the higher the fiscal deficit, the greater the dependence on the land finance. The lower the per capita GDP is, the less dependent on the land finance is. Based on this, the following two suggestions are proposed: further improve the current fiscal decentralization system, giving local governments more financial power; further improve the budget management system, alleviating the local government’s dependence on land finance.

Daniel J Carr

Abstract This chapter examines how the forms of property analyses in civil law and mixed legal sytems would need to be adapted to accommodate the cryptocurrency as an object of property (res). It first considers whether cryptocurrencies would count as objects of property, whether it is appropriate to treat them as ‘currency’ or ‘money’, and how they could be accommodated in a legal regime that categorises res as either tangible things or intangible rights. It then asks whether the incorporeal form of cryptocurrencies should be subordinated to their function and purpose, whether the law of possession will be directly applicable to cryptocurrencies, and how the civil law requirement of specificity could be satisfied by the cryptographic uniqueness of cryptocurrencies. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of recognising cryptocurrencies as res, focusing on questions of ownership, vindication and possessory actions, acquisitive prescription and original acquisition.

Lou Yi, YANG Zisheng, LOU Yi, YANG Zisheng

Land has always been an indispensable element in farmers’ production activities, and it is the root of farmers' survival. Under the background of rural revitalization, land transfer has become an important means of boosting rural revitalization. In the process of implementing the rural revitalization strategy, how to effectively solve the problems in rural land transfer, such as fragmentation, decentralization, low utilization rate, breach of contracts and difficult financing, is an important aspect of promoting rural modernization. In this paper, the literature on land transfer at home and abroad is sorted out, the current research status and the problems of land transfer under the background of rural revitalization are summarized and consolidated, and corresponding solutions and prospects are put forward. This is of practical significance to further study the land transfer under the background of rural revitalization in China.

Stephen Berrisford, Liza Rose Cirolia, Ian Palmer

Decentralization reforms and rapid urbanization place increasing pressure on African urban authorities. In response, land-based finance has been gaining popularity within development discourses as a method of increasing local autonomy and financing local government infrastructure provision. This paper discusses the conceptual basis for land-based finance, the instruments that form part of this approach, and the actual application in several African cities. Drawing on three case studies (Addis Ababa, Harare and Nairobi) and a high-level scan of 29 developments in various African cities, we show how land-based finance is being implemented in practice and discuss the potential for wider uptake. We conclude that African city governments are using land-based financing, albeit in inconsistent ways. We argue that urban authorities should consider the more extensive and progressive use of land-based financing instruments, despite the constraints imposed by both technical and political conditions. A progressive agenda for local government finance in African cities should take land-based finance seriously, as well as the local practices and institutional arrangements through which it operates.

Hernando de Soto

Five billion people in the world do not have the kind of ledgers that provide the documented information that allows them to transfer, partition, and aggregate assets and talents in such a way that they can be scaled up, secure investment, guarantee credit, certify reputation, and capture abstract surplus value. The difficulty that most people have in making combinations is a major cause of global inequality and unnecessary poverty.

Rod Thomas, Charlie Huang

No abstract is available for this record.

Zhang Hong, Yi Zhang, Tiantian Chen

No abstract is available for this record.

Armando Nova González, Mario A. González‐Corzo

The Cuban government has implemented a series of agricultural transformations since 2007 to increase the country’s agricultural self-sufficiency and reduce its dependency on food imports. These include the transfer (in usufruct) of State-owned land to non-State producers (e.g. cooperatives and private farmers), moderate price reforms, the decentralization of decision making, and the gradual relaxation of existing forms of agricultural commercialization. As a result of these measures, the area planted, as well as physical output and agricultural yields (in selected non-sugar crop categories) have shown mixed results, but still remain below desired levels. There are three (3) fundamental unresolved aspects that have prevented Cuba’s agricultural sector from achieving the desired outcomes: (1) the need to achieve the “realization of property,” (2) the recognition and acceptance of the market as a complementary economic coordination mechanism, and (3) the absence of a systemic focus to achieve the successful completion of the agricultural production cycle. These unresolved aspects should be addressed through: (1) the consolidation of input markets, where producers can obtain essential inputs at prices that correspond to the prices they can obtain for their output, (2) greater autonomy to allow agricultural producers to freely decide when, where, and to whom they could sell their output, after social contracts have been fulfilled, (3) the diversification of the forms of agricultural commercialization to permit greater participation by non-State economic actors, (4) allowing agricultural producers to freely hire the labor necessary to sustain and increase production, and (5) providing agricultural producers with the financing and technical assistance necessary.

Fan Zi-yin

Land finance is the most important issue in China during the last decade,one explanation is that the local governments are pushed to sell the land because they have great fiscal pressure.This paper uses the natural experiment of newly appointed minister in China between 1998 and 2007 to test the hypothesis,we get several finds.Fistly,newly elected ministers significantly reduce the fiscal pressure of their hometown,those ministers will change the allocation of central earmarked grants and increase 12%grants for their hometown.Secondly,the reductions of fiscal pressure of ministers' hometown have no impact on the land finance behavior,the area and revenue of land sales have not changed.Thirdly,the real cause of land finance is the impulse to invest,even the earmarked grants are used for productive infrastructure but not the basic public service.The policy implications of this paper is that the future reform should focus on the land leasehold policy,while the decentralization is not a feasible way because the fiscal pressure is not the real cause of land finance.

David Nyange, David Tschirley, Hussein Nassoro, Abeid Francis Gaspar · 8 authors

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Rural taxation policy is a major issue in many countries of Africa as they pursue more decentralized forms of governing and at the same time work to enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, and fairness of their tax systems. Tanzania has struggled with this issue since at least 1962, when it expanded countrywide the limited decentralization that had occurred under the colonial regime, then abolished LGAs in 1972 in favor of “Madaraka Mikoani,” only to reinstate them and enshrine them in the constitution in 1984. With wide powers to set tax policy and practice at local level, made possible by the Local Government Finance Act (LGFA) of 1982, Tanzania soon experienced a dizzying array of taxes and fees, with dramatically differing rates across LGAs. The situation became so extreme that some claimed that Tanzania by the late 1990s had “about 110 local authorities ... each with a different tax system” (Fjeldstad and Semboja 2000). A sustained effort at reform culminated in 2003, when the “head tax” and a series of “nuisance taxes” were abolished, and the produce cess was limited to a maximum of 5% (compared to rates as high as 20% in the past). Though the resulting system of local taxation is substantially less complex, less variable across LGAs, and less onerous than it was prior to these reforms, important problems remain, and stakeholder demands for further reform have been growing. Since the produce cess became the most important source of local revenue after 2003, much of the demand for reform has focused on it. In response to these concerns, GoT included a commitment to “reduce or abolish” produce cess when it signed the G8’s “New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition” declaration. This study took advantage of a newly available database of LGA revenue and expenditure and complemented it with fieldwork in 27 LGAs with varying levels of reliance on the produce cess. Its overall purpose is to generate new empirical understanding that contributes to the on-going debate on produce cess and that informs the GoT on pros and cons of potential options for reform. Key new findings include: 1. Dependence on the produce cess varies widely among rural LGAs, from 0% of total locally generated revenue in Ngorongoro to 90% in Urambo; 2. Relative to the value of their marketed production, traditional export crops generate more than three times as much cess revenue as do food crops; 3. Much potential cess revenue goes uncollected: nationally, LGAs collect not more than one- quarter of the revenue potentially available from produce cess charges. This low level of collection reflects both limited human and institutional capacity at local level and widespread tax evasion, some of it likely featuring the collaboration of some local officials; 4. Because it is charged on the gross value of production, current cess rates can result in very high tax (even confiscatory) on net revenue among farmers that use a large amount of inputs but experience small net margins; Confirmed previous findings include: 1. With the reforms of 2003, local revenue fell sharply as a share of total LGA revenue, from 20% to a current level of 7%. Central government transfers provide the rest. Such a low share of locally generated revenue makes meaningful decentralization quite challenging. 2. Nationally, cess contributes only 1.8% of total LGA revenue, with other local taxes accounting for 5%; 3. Yet cess is the largest source of rural LGA own revenue, at 43%. Because this revenue is very flexible (it does not come with the spending dictates that accompany central government transfers), it is highly valued by local authorities, and is largely used for Councilor allowances and other “costs of doing business”; 4. Cess rates are highly variable across LGAs, varying by a factor of as much as four (Beans in Handeni at Tshs 1000/bag vs. Lushoto at Tshs 4000/bag); 5. Tax evasion is widespread and likely a more serious problem than tax avoidance; 6. But avoidance – farmers or traders or others changing their production and marketing behavior due to the tax (and especially due to the variation over space in tax rates) – can be a serious problem in particular instances. For example, some sugarcane growers in Mvomero are considering shifting their farming activities to Kilombero due to lower cess rates in the latter; and farmers and traders report that traders favor some districts over others in their food trade due to differences in cess rates; Reform options include: 1. Abolish cess in one step 2. Gradual phasing out of cess 3. Reduce the cess rate, broaden its base, and improve capacity for collection 4. Institute a differential cess for food- and non-food crops 5. Completely remove cess in food crops, leaving it only for traditional and other export crops. Simple simulations of option 3 combined with option 4 (3% for traditional cash crops, 2% for food crops) indicate that LGAs would need to improve their efficiency in collection (the share of potential cess that is actually collected) from the current estimated 28% to 41% to maintain revenue, and would increase revenue with further improvements. Complete elimination of cess on food crops (option 5) would make LGA’s jobs quite challenging, especially if rates were reduced on traditional export crops. Leaving the rate on these crops unchanged at 5%, LGAs would have to achieve nearly 60% efficiency in their collection to maintain their current revenues; dropping the cess on traditional export crops to 3% while eliminating it on food crops would require an almost certainly unattainable 83% efficiency. Based on the analysis in the paper, and in keeping with the view that improvement in tax systems is a long-term process featuring continuous, incremental improvement, the report suggests that option 3 combined with option 4 – reducing the rate of the cess (thereby reducing its variability over space), introducing a slight differential between food crops and traditional export crops, and broadening the cess collection base by working continuously to improve the human and institutional capacity of LGAs to collect taxes in efficient and fair fashion, is likely to be the best option for Tanzania. Piloting of technological and institutional innovations such as the use of mobile money for cess payment are proposed as one way to address both the inadequate local capacity and the scope for corruption in cess collection.

Shao Yan-fe

The formation of land finance is both related to the financial system and tax structure of China and is closely related to both the objective change of central government and the goal composition of local governments. This paper uses Game Theory Methodology to analyze the earnings function of each main body of the interests and its strategic choice and reveals the intrinsic mechanism and evolution progress of the finance formation of local governments. Research results show that the land finance is easily formed when central government prefers social fairness to choose centralized power,that land finance can not be formed when central government chooses decentralized power to make local governments get stronger incentive to promote local economic development,and meanwhile,the game between local governments and developing merchants depends on the choice of the officials of the local governments. This paper suggests( 1) improve the institutional design of tax distribution system,( 2) enlarge the penalty on the local governments for illegal expropriation of land,( 3) reform the traditional cadre evaluation by GDP.

Authors unavailable

Programme Financing Agreement (Decentralized Programme for Rural Poverty Reduction in Ha Giang and Quang Binh Provinces) between the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (with schedules and General Conditions for Agricultural Development Financing dated 2 December 1998). Rome, 15 February 2005

Feng Shuang-shen

By using literature research,the combination of empirical and normative analysis,the damage of farmers' rights and interests caused by land finance factors and the countermeasures to protect farmers' rights and interests in the rural homestead replacement dominated by local government were discussed.The results showed that there are such phenomena as setting a rent through system to get as much as possible benefit and strong pushing means by administrative command etc,so improving fiscal decentralization and local government performance appraisal system must be done well in order to protect farmers' rights and interests.

Klaus Deininger

There are three reasons why land policies in Africa are attracting greater amounts of attention. First, it is recognized that enhancing smallholder productivity is critical for sustainable and broad-based growth as well as poverty reduction (World Bank 2007). However, land-related investment, technology adoption, establishment of processing, markets, and value chains, all are unlikely to come about unless land tenure is secure. Moreover, increased productivity will be capitalized in land values and unless explicit attention is devoted to traditional land rights and land access by weaker groups, in particular women, interventions aiming to increase agricultural productivity may have negative social consequences. This is particularly relevant in contexts where current interpretations of customary systems define women's rights only through their relationship with men and women are often unable to inherit land which is considered the property of their husband's lineage. Negative implications for productivity can be severe, in particular if, as almost everywhere, women make a major contribution to agricultural production and its management.Second, demand for land, and in many cases land prices, have vastly increased with population growth, urbanization, and overall economic development. While higher land values makes land registration more rewarding, leaving land rights undefined increases the risk of having them appropriated by outsiders in a way that may neither be consistent with principles of equity nor conducive to the most productive use of this resource.Third, in a decentralized setting, land administration can not only help provide public goods and improve government finance but also that are rural areas will not develop based on agriculture alone. Nonagricultural development will imply migration of households out of agriculture that requires secure land rights so as to allow transfer of land rights, either through rental on a temporary basis or through sale, to others who are able to make more effective use of it without the fear of losing it. In many cases, this is now complemented by demand for land by investors who want to use it for food production, bio-fuels, or in anticipation of carbon payments has increased significantly in the wake of recent commodity price booms. It has highlighted that, without clear processes to process requests or assign of land rights, land acquisition by outsiders may end up fostering corruption and leading to inequality and dispossession of traditional land users rather than as a positive force for growth.This paper examines the theories identifying channels through which land rights can affect socioeconomic outcomes, points to realities which often prevent such effects from materializing, summarizes quantitative evidence on the actual impact of land registration interventions to assess the validity of theoretical arguments, and derives conclusions that can help guide applied work in this area. An example from Ethiopia is used to illustrate the potentially far-reaching impacts of ‘new' models of formalizing land rights and a number of policy conclusions are drawn.

Jens Friis Lund, Thorsten Treue

No abstract is available for this record.

Wei Gao

Constructing a multi-level rural finance system is the hardcore for the new countryside construction.Agriculture insurance has played an irreplaceable role in decentralization and debasing the systematic risks of agriculture finance system.In response to the present absence of agriculture insurance laws and provisions,it's compulsory for China to persist in the correct legislation rule,and gradually consummate agriculture insurance legislation so as to accelerate the promotion of new countryside construction.

Coralie Bryant

The debate around the relative roles of markets versus bureaucrats took on renewed life with the end of the Cold War. The public policy debate shifted from focusing on the public sector to emphasizing markets and their ability to innovate, decentralize, use incentives and meet needs more effectively. Yet there remains in this public policy debate a stunning silence about the absence of property rights for the rural poor. This article focuses on the need to put property rights for the rural poor--the need for land reform--back on the international policy agenda. The first half of the article examines current land reform paradigms and looks at what has been learned, focusing on Brazil as a case study The second half of the article moves from what has been done to a discussion of where future research and operational work should go from here. There are 1.3 billion people around the world who live on less than U.S.$1 a day.(1) Even though urbanization has been one of the major features of development and change in the past decade, the majority of these poor still live in rural areas. Furthermore, there are rural roots to the urban poverty seen in most countries, as those without assets migrate to urban or semi-urban areas searching for work. Thus redistribution of assets is central to long-run progress on reducing poverty in both the city and the countryside. Researchers Michael Lipton and Jacques van der Gaag point out: For poverty reduction to succeed, the poor need some autochthonous source of income and safety. That is, they need to have an alternative, in the market place and in the polity, not to depend on a patron, monopolist or bureaucrat. Providing the poor with access to productive land is usually regarded as crucial.(2) Land reform is one of the most central steps in this process. The effectiveness of land-reform programs in improving productivity and reducing rural poverty relies on many factors including land quality, access to technology and strong local agricultural markets. However, access to land is the single most important prerequisite for improving economic conditions among the rural poor. Precisely because of the salience of land reform to the reduction of rural poverty, one of the major recommendations of this paper is that international donors should recommit themselves to land reform and begin financing the analytical work and technical assistance it requires. The current general silence and limited operational programming of donors on land reform exacerbates the rural poverty problem.(3) CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Over two decades ago, Peter Dorner, a major authority on land reform, cautioned: Land reform is so intimately related with the whole development process that one feels the need to deal with issues of development in general as well as with those more specifically identified with land reform. That requires simplification of complex and nationally specific experiences. No single body of theory encompasses all the strategic variables.(4) Dorner's definition of land reform includes measures to redistribute land in favor of peasants and small farmers and ... embraces consolidation and registration in areas where customary tenure is prevalent and also land settlement on new lands.(5) He places an additional emphasis on the need to make changes in tenancy rights. Each of these aspects goes to the core of rural politics, and nothing about them is easily simplified. Indeed, to think of land reform as only a technocratic or economic problem is a mistake. It is a political economy problem with economic and social consequences amenable to resolution through good technical skills and political change. As such, land reform is a central part of the whole development process. While development economists and agricultural economists have done most of the conceptual work on land reform, more recently attention has shifted to the ancillary fields of institutional theory (including organization theory), development management and law. …

Bill Kinsey, Hans P. Binswanger

No abstract is available for this record.