Land Titling and Litigation

We study a land-titling reform implemented as randomized control trial to isolate its effects on litigation. The consisted of demarcating land parcels, registering existing customary rights, and granting additional legal protection right holders. Ten years after implementation, the doubled likelihood households experiencing land-related litigation, but disputes did not escalate into more frequent violent episodes. suggest that this increase in litigation reflects complementarity titling by registration judicial procedures aimed at further clarifying property registered titles all parcels left many subject adverse claims. This raised demand for complementary perfecting low-value that, under system, were optimal keep unclarified. Consistent with explanation, we find took place among plausibly own lower value.