Large-scale land acquisitions exacerbate local land inequalities in Tanzania

Keywords: Large-scale land acquisitions, inequality; land system science; causal inference
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Land inequality stalls economic growth, entrenches poverty, and is associated with environmental degradation. Yet rigorous assessments of land-use interventions attend to inequality only rarely. A land inequality lens is especially important to understand how recent large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) affect smallholder and indigenous communities across as much as 100-million hectares around the world. This paper studies inequalities in land assets, specifically landholdings and farm size, to derive insights into the distributional outcomes of LSLAs. Using a household survey covering four pairs of land acquisition and control sites in Tanzania, we apply linear and quantile regression analyses in a quasi-experimental design to characterize changes in land inequality. We find strong evidence that LSLAs in Tanzania are associated with both reduced landholdings and greater farmland inequality among smallholders. Households in proximity to LSLAs are associated with 21.1% smaller landholdings while evidence, although insignificant, is suggestive that farm sizes are also declining. Aggregate estimates, however, mask heterogeneous patterns. Using quantile regression, we show that land poor households experience the majority of declines in land assets. Farms less than 0.5 hectares in size have up to 71% smaller farms than similar households unaffected by LSLAs. Our results indicate higher land competition around LSLAs that provide one explanation of increasing land inequality. The results point to the need to assess the distributional outcomes of land-use policies and interventions, even where decentralized or democratic land-use planning is in place, to build an evidence base of more equitable solutions.