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Land and poverty: the role of soil fertility and vegetation quality in poverty reduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2020

Martin Philipp Heger Open the ORCID record for Martin Philipp Heger [Opens in a new window] ,
Gregor Zens  and
Mook Bangalore
Martin Philipp Heger*
Affiliation:
World Bank, Washington, DC, USA
Gregor Zens
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna, Austria
Mook Bangalore
Affiliation:
London School of Economics, London, UK
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: mheger1@worldbank.org
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Abstract

The debate on the land–poverty nexus is inconclusive, with past research unable to identify the causal dynamics. We use a unique global panel dataset that links survey and census derived poverty data with measures of land ecosystems at the subnational level. Rainfall is used to overcome the endogeneity in the land–poverty relationship in an instrumental variable approach. This is the first global study using quasi-experimental methods to uncover the degree to which land improvements matter for poverty reduction. We draw three main conclusions. First, land improvements are important for poverty reduction in rural areas and particularly so for Sub-Saharan Africa. Second, land improvements are pro-poor: poorer areas see larger poverty alleviation effects due to improvements in land. Finally, irrigation plays a major role in breaking the link between bad weather and negative impacts on the poor through reduced vegetation growth and soil fertility.

Keywords

environmentglobal panellandpovertysoil fertility

JEL classification

O13: Agriculture • Natural Resources • Energy • Environment • Other Primary Products Q15: Land Ownership and Tenure • Land Reform • Land Use • Irrigation • Agriculture and Environment I32: Measurement and Analysis of Poverty O11: Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , August 2020 , pp. 315 - 333
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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