Social Interactions in Growing Bananas: Evidence from a Tanzanian Village

This paper analyses whether agricultural information flows give rise to social learning effects in banana cultivation in Nyakatoke, a small Tanzanian village. Based on a village census, full information is available on socio-economic characteristics and banana production of farmer kinship members, neighbours and informal insurance group members. This allows a test for social learning within these groups and the identification of different types of social effects. Controlling for exogenous group characteristics, the effect of group behaviour on individual farmer output is studied. The results show that social effects are strongly dependent on the definition of the reference group. It emerges that no social effects are found in distance based groups, exogenous social effects linked to group education exist in informal insurance groups, and only kinship related groups generate the endogenous social effects that produce positive externalities in banana output.social interactions, social learning, agricultural information networks

Social Interactions in Growing Bananas

In an environment of strongly decreasing banana productivity, we analyse whether an increase in the average productivity of a reference group a farmer belongs to, has a positive effect on that individual farmer’s harvest. The increase in average productivity is supposedly caused by the adoption of productivity enhancing techniques. So we measure the externalities of a productivity increase in one farmer’s banana field. For our analysis we have data on three social groups, namely kinship members, neighbours and social insurance group members. We find the strongest social effects within kinship related groups. We do find exogenous social effects between neighbours: there is a positive effect of neighbours’ education level. But only within kinship related groups we find the true endogenous effects that produce the social multiplier in banana productivity.

The Forgotten Property Rights: Restrictions on Land Use in Vietnam

Studies of land property rights usually focus on tenure security and transfer rights. Rights to determine how to use the land are regularly ignored. However, in transition economies such as Vietnam and China, user rights are often limited. Relying on a unique Vietnamese panel data set at both household and plot level, we show that crop choice restrictions are widespread and prevent crop diversification. Restrictions do not decrease household income, but restricted households work harder, and there are indications that they are supplied with higher quality inputs. Our findings are consistent with the view that the Vietnamese government has managed to intervene effectively in agricultural (rice) production to promote output and food security. At the same time, it is now time to carefully consider the potential benefits of a more diversified crop pattern.Property rights; restrictions; Vietnam

Land Titles and Rice Production in Vietnam

In most of the empirical literature on land titling, the household is regarded as unitary, and land rights are found to have ambiguous effects on land allocation, investment and productivity. Using data from 12 provinces in Vietnam, we diversify land titles, and show in a household fixed effects analysis of plot level rice yields that land titles are indeed important. Only exclusively held titles have the expected positive effects, and the positive effect on yields is found in male headed households. Furthermore, a household level rice yield function reveals that exclusive user rights are inefficiency decreasing, while jointly held user rights have no efficiency effects. Finally, once the gender of the head of household is controlled for, exclusively held female titles have a greater positive effect on the efficiency of the household than that of male held titles.

Land Titles and Rice Production in Vietnam

In most of the empirical literature on land titling, the household is regarded as unitary, and land rights are found to have ambiguous effects on land allocation, investment and productivity. Using data from 12 provinces in Vietnam, we diversify land titles, and show in a household fixed effects analysis of plot level rice yields that land titles are indeed important. Only exclusively held titles have the expected positive effects, and the positive effect on yields is found in male headed households. Furthermore, a household level rice yield function reveals that exclusive user rights are inefficiency decreasing, while jointly held user rights have no efficiency effects. Finally, once the gender of the head of household is controlled for, exclusively held female titles have a greater positive effect on the efficiency of the household than that of male held titles.

Social Capital and Savings Behaviour: Evidence from Vietnam

We explore the extent to which social capital can play a role in imparting information about the returns to saving where potential knowledge gaps and mistrust exists. Using data from Vietnam we find strong evidence to support the hypothesis that information transmitted via reputable social organizations increases the proportion of liquid assets held in the form of deposits that yield a return. Our results imply that targeting information on the benefits of deposit saving through formal networks or groups would be effective in increasing the number of households that save at grassroots level.Household Savings, Social Capital, Information Failure, Risk Aversion