Aberra and Chemin: Legal Knowledge, Property Rights, and Investment in Kenya

In Know Your Rights! A Field Experiment on Legal Knowledge, Property Rights, and Investment in Kenya, Adam Aberra and Matthieu Chemin (both Economics, McGill University, Montreal) illustrate the impact of legal trainings regarding property rights on landowners in Kenya and emphasize that this low-cost intervention increases security in property rights and promotes economic development.

The authors argue that secure property rights are fundamental to economic development and investment. In regions where access to courts is difficult and people are uncertain of their property rights, economic development may be hindered. Informing people of their rights can prevent disputes that require adjudication. In support of this conclusion, the authors point to the positive outcomes resulting from five years of legal services and trainings offered to farmers through a Community Justice Center in rural Kenya, staffed with Kenyan lawyers and paralegals.

Two issues surrounding property rights—succession and buying and selling land—were not well understood by the general population of smallholder farmers who relied on tradition to characterize land ownership. To disseminate this information, a team of Kenyan lawyers held trainings on succession processes, how to buy and sell land, and how to write a will. These sessions were offered to already existing community groups, usually women’s groups, who expressed interest in learning more about their property rights. The trainings were often coupled with women’s rights trainings to underscore the greater protections available for women’s property ownership than was traditional under customary law. Notably, participants who engaged in the training and followed provided steps became legal owners of their land. The authors found that surveyed participants felt that the trainings were helpful, felt more secure in their property rights, and were engaging in increased investment in their land use.

This study is a unique contribution to understanding the impact of legal knowledge programs. These programs often have widespread investment, but little data exist regarding their impact and whether increased knowledge actually improves economic outcomes. The authors advocate for continued investment in these low-cost legal knowledge programs which ease burdens on court systems, provide property rights stability, and improve economic investment.