Land inheritance and schooling in matrilineal societies: evidence from Sumatra

This paper explores statistically the implications of the shift from communal to individualized tenure on the distribution of land and schooling between sons and daughters in matrilineal societies, based on a Sumatra case study. The inheritance system is evolving from a strictly matrilineal system to a more egalitarian system in which sons and daughters inherit the type of land that is more intensive in their own work effort. While gender bias is either non-existent or small in land inheritance, daughters tend to be disadvantaged with respect to schooling. The gender gap in schooling, however, appears to be closing for the generation of younger children.Gender, Property rights, Education,

Land, trees, and women: evolution of land tenure institutions in Western Ghana and Sumatra

This research report examines three questions that are central to IFPRI research: How do property-rights institutions affect efficiency and equity? How are resources allocated within households? Why does this matter from a policy perspective? As part of a larger multicountry study on property rights to land and trees, this study focuses on the evolution from customary land tenure with communal ownership toward individualized rights, and how this shift affects women and men differently.This study's key contribution is its multilevel econometric analysis of efficiency and equity issues. Using a combination of community, village, and household surveys in Western Ghana and Sumatra, two areas with traditional matrilineal inheritance systems, the authors and their collaborators analyze the effectiveness of village-, household-, and parcel-level property-rights institutions and arrangements.Land tenure Ghana., Agroforestry Gender issues., Land tenure Sumatra., Land use, Rural Planning., Right of property Gender issues., Gender, Property rights, Natural resource management,

Land and schooling

"The authors address questions such as: (1) how do parents allocate land and education between sons and daughters? (2) how do changing returns to land and human capital affect parents' investments in children? (3) what do gender differences in land and schooling mean for the welfare of men and women? (4) is gender equity compatible with efficiency and growth? The book is based on intensive household surveys in Ghana, Indonesia, and the Philippines." From TextSex discrimination against women Developing countries. ,Agricultural laborers ,

Are wealth transfers biased against girls?

"This study attempts to analyze changing patterns of land transfers and schooling investments by gender over three generations in customary land areas of Ghana's Western Region. Although traditional matrilineal inheritance rules deny landownership rights to women, women have increasingly acquired land through gifts and other means, thereby reducing the gender gap in landownership. The gender gap in schooling has also declined significantly, though it persists. We attribute such changes to the increase in women's bargaining power due to an agricultural technology that increased the demand for women's labor, contributing to the reduction of "social" discrimination as well as weak "parental" discrimination." Authors' AbstractWealth transfers ,Gender ,Ghana ,

Are wealth transfers biased against girls?

"This study attempts to analyze changing patterns of land transfers and schooling investments by gender over three generations in customary land areas of Ghana's Western Region. Although traditional matrilineal inheritance rules deny landownership rights to women, women have increasingly acquired land through gifts and other means, thereby reducing the gender gap in landownership. The gender gap in schooling has also declined significantly, though it persists. We attribute such changes to the increase in women's bargaining power due to an agricultural technology that increased the demand for women's labor, contributing to the reduction of "social" discrimination as well as weak "parental" discrimination." Authors' AbstractWealth transfers ,Gender ,Ghana ,

Classical dimer model with anisotropic interactions on the square lattice

We discuss phase transitions and the phase diagram of a classical dimer model with anisotropic interactions defined on a square lattice. For the attractive region, the perturbation of the orientational order parameter introduced by the anisotropy causes the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transitions from a dimer-liquid to columnar phases. According to the discussion by Nomura and Okamoto for a quantum-spin chain system [J. Phys. A 27, 5773 (1994)], we proffer criteria to determine transition points and also universal level-splitting conditions. Subsequently, we perform numerical diagonalization calculations of the nonsymmetric real transfer matrices up to linear dimension specified by L=20 and determine the global phase diagram. For the repulsive region, we find the boundary between the dimer-liquid and the strong repulsion phases. Based on the dispersion relation of the one-string motion, which exhibits a two-fold ``zero-energy flat band'' in the strong repulsion limit, we give an intuitive account for the property of the strong repulsion phase.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure

Women's land rights in the transition to individualized ownership

This study explores the impact of changes in land tenure institutions on women's land rights and the efficiency of tree resource management in Western Ghana. We find that customary land tenure institutions have evolved toward individualized systems to provide incentives to invest in tree planting. However, contrary to the common belief that individualization of land tenure weakens women's land rights, these have been strengthened through inter vivos gifts and the practice of the Intestate Succession Law. Investment in tree planting, in turn, is affected not simply by the level of land tenure security, but also by its expected changes, as tree planting strengthens land tenure security. Cocoa yields are lower on allocated family land and rented land under share tenancy due to distorted work incentives. While men and women are equally likely to plant trees, women obtain lower yields on their cocoa plots, suggesting the presence of gender-specific constraints.Gender ,Gender issues Africa. ,Land tenure Africa. ,Right of property Gender issues Africa. ,Tree planting. ,Crop yields. ,Property rights ,

New mechanism for the enhancement of sdsd dominance in interacting boson models

We introduce an exactly solvable model for interacting bosons that extend up to high spin and interact through a repulsive pairing force. The model exhibits a phase transition to a state with almost complete $sd$ dominance. The repulsive pairing interaction that underlies the model has a natural microscopic origin in the Pauli exclusion principle between contituent nucleons. As such, repulsive pairing between bosons seems to provide a new mechanism for the enhancement of $sd$ dominance, giving further support for the validity of the $sd$ Interacting Boson Model.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Structural evolution in Pt isotopes with the Interacting Boson Model Hamiltonian derived from the Gogny Energy Density Functional

Spectroscopic calculations are carried out, for the description of the shape/phase transition in Pt nuclei in terms of the Interacting Boson Model (IBM) Hamiltonian derived from (constrained) Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) calculations with the finite range and density dependent Gogny-D1S Energy Density Functional. Assuming that the many-nucleon driven dynamics of nuclear surface deformation can be simulated by effective bosonic degrees of freedom, the Gogny-D1S potential energy surface (PES) with quadrupole degrees of freedom is mapped onto the corresponding PES of the IBM. Using this mapping procedure, the parameters of the IBM Hamiltonian, relevant to the low-lying quadrupole collective states, are derived as functions of the number of valence nucleons. Merits of both Gogny-HFB and IBM approaches are utilized so that the spectra and the wave functions in the laboratory system are calculated precisely. The experimental low-lying spectra of both ground-state and side-band levels are well reproduced. From the systematics of the calculated spectra and the reduced E2 transition probabilities $B$(E2), the prolate-to-oblate shape/phase transition is shown to take place quite smoothly as a function of neutron number $N$ in the considered Pt isotopic chain, for which the $\gamma$-softness plays an essential role. All these spectroscopic observables behave consistently with the relevant PESs and the derived parameters of the IBM Hamiltonian as functions of $N$. Spectroscopic predictions are also made for those nuclei which do not have enough experimental E2 data.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure