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This paper investigates whether social structure helps or hinders factor allocation using unusually rich data from The Gambia. Evidence indicates that land available for cultivation is allocated unequally across households; and that factor transfers are more common between neighbors, co-ethnics, and kinship related households. Does this lead to the conclusion that land inequality is due to flows of land between households being impeded by social divisions? To answer this question, a novel methodology that approaches exhaustive data on dyadic flows from an aggregate point of view is introduced. Land transfers lead to a more equal distribution of land and to more comparable factor ratios across households in general. But equalizing transfers of land are not more likely within ethnic or kinship groups. In conclusion, ethnic and kinship divisions do not hinder land and labor transfers in a way that contributes to aggregate factor inequality. Labor transfers do not equilibrate factor ratios across households. But it cannot be ruled out that they serve a beneficial role, e.g., to deal with unanticipated health shocks.

Allocative Efficiency --- Communities and Human Settlements --- Culture and Development --- Factor Markets --- Indigenous Peoples --- Inequality --- Land Markets --- Poverty Reduction --- Social Division --- Social Networks

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This paper examines living conditions-mainly access to infrastructure and basic services-in Kinshasa, by focusing on how they vary within the city and how they are related to household characteristics. First, drawing on a household survey conducted in the capital province in 2018, the paper shows that many Kinshasa residents live with substandard housing and inadequate levels of access to infrastructure and basic services. Second, the level and quality of access to basic services are highly correlated with residents' consumption and education levels, as well as their neighborhood characteristics. Third, despite the presence of negative externalities from the high population density, poor households benefit from living in dense neighborhoods by gaining a minimum level of access. The paper argues that it is imperative to increase the supply of affordable housing to lessen the inequality of access to services in Kinshasa.

Communities and Human Settlements --- Housing --- Inequality --- Informal Settlements --- Multidimensional Poverty --- Poverty Lines --- Poverty Reduction --- Spatial Inequality --- Urban Development --- Urban Housing --- Urban Housing and Land Settlements --- Urban Poverty

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Land titling has been a policy priority for developing country cities for decades. In Sub-Saharan Africa and across the world, tenure formalization has been promoted as a tool to improve the quality and value of urban housing. The track record of these projects, however, has generally been disappointing. Why is this? This paper argues that project design has paid too little attention to contextual features of land markets in estimating the benefits of formalization to individual households. The paper draws on evidence from a case study city - Dar es Salaam, Tanzania - to show that in cities where broader property rights institutions are incomplete and informal sources of tenure security are strong, formal property rights may not be valued by households. This raises questions about the households' willingness to pay for regularization and suggests that complementary strategies to build trust in government and consolidate public benefits of titling will be needed to ensure that projects have a beneficial impact.

Communities and Human Settlements --- Land Tenure --- Land Titling --- Municipal Housing and Land --- Property Rights --- Tenure Formalization --- Urban Development --- Urban Housing --- Urban Housing and Land Settlements

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This paper provides the first systematic analysis of migration to, within, and from Libya. The data used in the analysis are from the Displacement Tracking Matrix data set of the International Organization for Migration. The analysis uses this unique source of data, combining several techniques to analyze various dimensions of migration in Libya. First, the paper provides a detailed description of the demographic characteristics and national composition of the migrant populations in Libya. Next, it discusses the determinants of migration flow within Libya. The findings show that migration in Libya can be characterized as forced migration, because conflict intensity is the main determinant of the decision to relocate across provinces. Finally, the paper describes the direction, composition, and evolution of international migration flows passing through Libya and identifies the mechanisms of location selection by migrants within Libya by identifying hotspots and cluster provinces.

Armed Conflict --- Communities and Human Settlements --- Conflict and Development --- Conflict-Affected States --- Conflicts --- Forced Displacement --- Forced Migration --- Human Migrations and Resettlements --- International Economics and Trade --- International Migration --- Labor Markets --- Migrant --- Poverty

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The paper studies the market failures associated with land tenure insecurity and information asymmetry in an urban land use model, and analyzes households' responses to mitigate tenure insecurity. When buyers and sellers of land plots can pair along trusted kinship lines whereby deception (the non-disclosure of competing claims on a land plot to a buyer) is socially penalized, information asymmetry is attenuated, but overall participation in the land market is reduced. Alternatively, when owners can make land plots secure by paying to register them in a cadaster, both information asymmetry and tenure insecurity are reduced, but the registration cost limits land market participation at the periphery of the city. The paper then compares the overall surpluses under these trust and registration models and under a hybrid version of the model that reflects the context of today's West African cities where both registration and trusted relationships are simultaneously available to residents. The analysis highlights the substitutability of trusted relationships to costly registration and predicts the gradual evolution of economies towards the socially preferable registration system if registration costs can be sufficiently reduced.

Communities and Human Settlements --- Ethnic Kinship --- Informal Land Use --- Information Assymetry --- Land Administration --- Land Information Systems --- Land Market --- Land Registration --- Land Tenure Insecurity --- Land Use --- Land Use and Policies --- Property Rights