1. Norwegian University of Life Sciences1 Joint Land Certification and Intra- household Decision-making: Towards Empowerment of Wives? Stein T. Holden and Sosina Bezu Centre for Land Tenure Studies / School of Economics and Business NMBU, Ås, Norway www.steinholden.com

2. Joint Land Certification and Intra- household Decision-making: Towards Empowerment of Wives? Study in Ethiopia Funding by –Research Council of Norway –GLTN, UN-Habitat (2007 survey) Data: Panel household survey –Data from 2007 and 2012 (~620 households) from 20 communities in 5 districts in Oromia and SNNP regions –Social experiments 2012 2

3. Joint land certification of husbands and wives in Southern Ethiopia: Example certificate: 3 Women – from being the “property” of men to becoming equal co-owner of land? How has this reform influenced women’s position in the household?

4. Women have a particularly weak position in relation to land in Southern Ethiopia Holden and Tefera (2008). From Being Property of Men to Becoming Equal Owners? UN-Habitat report. –Evidence of weak position of women related to land: Patri-lineal system, women move to husband’s village/home upon marriage Arranged marriages where girls/brides had little influcence on marriage decisions, with bride prizes Widows are required to marry the brother (or other relative) of the late husband or they have to leave the land Kidnapping marriages quite common in the past 4 Joint Land Certification and Intra-household Decision-making: Towards Empowerment of Wives?

5. Polygamy is common in Southern Ethiopia, here a man with his three wives 5

6. Correspondence of stated marriage type by spouses 6 Marriage type: females’ responses Marriage type: males’ responses Parental arrange ment Parental and bride agree- ment Love marri- age Wife ex- change Kidnap- ping marri- age Total Parental arrangement 607111483 Parental and bride agreement 1481713106 Love marriage 1112132011166 Wife exchange 012508 Kidnapping marriage 11201822 Total 86102154736385 Joint Land Certification and Intra-household Decision-making: Towards Empowerment of Wives?

7. Oromia and SNNP Regions: Impacts of Joint Land Certification Indicator of women’s empowerment: –Extent of participation in a set of land- related decisions, including crop choice and land renting decisions, and whether wives’ participation in such decisions has led to a change in the decisions 7 Joint Land Certification and Intra-household Decision-making: Towards Empowerment of Wives?

8. Effects of land certification on household decision-making 8 Husbands’ responses Wives’ responses Responses in 2012 Numb er % % More discussion on land renting decision11521.610320.5 More discussion on crop choice21239.823647.0 More discussion on work division on each plot 529.85010.0 More discussion on investment decisions such as tree planting 6912.95110.2 More discussion on construction of houses on the land 5510.3499.8 More discussion on giving land to children203.8132.6 Total533100502100

9. Wives’ stated preferences for strengthened women’s land rights: Wives’ Attitude Index Generated from the response to three questions: –Wife can deny husband to rent out land = 1, = 0 otherwise; –Wife expects joint land certificate = 1, = 0 otherwise; –Wife expects equal sharing of land upon divorce = 1, = 0 otherwise; Aggregate index of wives' attitude is the sum of the above three variables 9 Joint Land Certification and Intra-household Decision-making: Towards Empowerment of Wives?

10. Husbands' preference for traditional position of women: Husband s’ Attitude Index Widow should not be allowed to marry outside the family of the late husband = 1, = 0 otherwise; Widow should marry brother of late husband =1, = 0 otherwise Husband decides if disagreement between husband and wife =1, = 0 otherwise The index was created by summing the responses to these three questions 10 Joint Land Certification and Intra-household Decision-making: Towards Empowerment of Wives?

11. “Wives’ land rights attitudes”- index distribution by year 11 Note: Pearson chi2(3) = 141.3, Pr = 0.000 for difference in distribution from 2007 to 2012. Index score Stats 20072012Total 0 Freq. 382462 Percent 11.37.59.4 1 Freq. 43750 Percent 12.82.27.6 2 Freq. 11758175 Percent 34.718.126.6 3 Freq. 139232371 Percent 41.372.356.4 Total Freq. 337321658 Joint Land Certification and Intra-household Decision-making: Towards Empowerment of Wives?

12. “Husbands’ preference for traditional position of women- index in 2012 12 Index scoreFreq.PercentCum. 0 11535.8 1 12238.073.8 2 7021.895.6 3 144.4100 Total 321100 Joint Land Certification and Intra-household Decision-making: Towards Empowerment of Wives?

13. Parsimonious models Norwegian University of Life Sciences13 Wives' land rights attitude index Husbands' preference for traditional position of women index Wives’ land- related empowerment index Attended land reform meeting0.206***-0.178*0.135 Land certificate, dummy-0.0880.051 Year dummy, =1 for 20120.723**** Wives' land rights attitude index 0.284**** Husbands' attitude index -0.108* Community FEYes cut1-1.037****-0.081-0.838*** cut2-0.606***0.934****0.522** cut30.337*2.043****1.444**** Prob > chi20.000 Number of observations1166617501

14. Factors affecting wives’ involvement in land-related decisons 14 Results from ordered probit models OP1OP2OP3 Wives' land rights attitude index0.292****0.333****0.332**** Husbands' land rights attitude index-0.231***-0.235***-0.234*** Age of household head-0.001 Household size0.0150.0310.028 Average education level in hh.0.0060.0240.034 Male work force0.0540.0390.034 Female work force-0.082-0.090-0.085 Farm size, ha-0.203-0.243**-0.261** Tropical livestock units0.054*0.049*0.052* Wife's name on certificate, dummy0.2050.2820.253 Religion dummies, baseline= Muslim Protestant-0.673** Orthodox-0.695** District fixed effects Yes Village fixed effectsNo Yes Joint Land Certification and Intra-household Decision-making: Towards Empowerment of Wives?

15. Social experiments Used to tease out the relationship between husbands and wives –Dictator games: Intra-household generosity –Hawk-Dove games: Intra-household coordination, cooperation and competition 15 Joint Land Certification and Intra-household Decision-making: Towards Empowerment of Wives?

16. Husband and wife waiting for the outcome of the coin toss: Dictator games 16

17. How generous are spouses towards each other? 17 Husbands and wives are about equally generous More than 60% share equally with their spouse

18. Dictator game outcomes for husbands and wives 18 Joint Land Certification and Intra-household Decision-making: Towards Empowerment of Wives?

19. “ Hawk and dove” games: Who is the boss in the household? Wives are more hawkish than their husbands, while the men are kinder than their reputation, but… Large differences in “cooperative climate” across households

20. Relation between experiments and land certificate? 20 Joint land certification has resulted in more involvement of wives in land-related decisions More and better cooperation (in HD games) between spouses that have received joint land certificates

21. Hawk-Dove game outcomes for husbands and wives 21 Joint Land Certification and Intra-household Decision-making: Towards Empowerment of Wives?

22. Factors associated with hawkishness in Hawk-Dove experiments Norwegian University of Life SciencesTittel på presentasjon22 Models without separate asset variables Models with separate asset variables HusbandsWivesHusbandsWives Average education of hh members -0.137**0.076-0.167**0.055 Age of male head 0.0020.024**-0.0160.025 Education of male head 0.071*-0.0020.096**-0.007 Number of children not attending school 0.1250.519**0.1790.523** Has land certificate -0.938**-1.898****-1.065*-2.033**** Number of Hawk by wife-0.326****-0.258**** Number of Hawk by husband-0.474****-0.381**** Marriage type dummies: Baseline: Arranged marriage Arranged marriage with bride agreement 0.0770.1570.1390.020 Love marriage 0.3200.2700.4170.245 Exchange marriage -0.5170.599-0.5470.446 Kidnapping marriage 1.181****1.326**1.187***1.589* Land brought to marriage by husband -0.0390.010 Land brought to marriage by wife -0.390**0.133 Husband's assets brought to marriage, 1000EB -0.039***-0.048 Wife's assets brought to marriage, 1000EB 0.295****-0.046 Tropical livestock units 0.0820.094 Wife's share of livestock -0.993-7.092** Age difference husband-wife 0.034***0.000

23. Overall conclusion I We have found strong evidence that the Joint land certification has: –Strenthened land rights and awareness of wives in male-headed households –Resulted in stronger involvement in land- related decisions We found evidence of mutual generosity between spouses in dictator games –Many supportive men! Hawk-Dove games indicated that many wives dare to stand up and demand their rights 23 Joint Land Certification and Intra-household Decision-making: Towards Empowerment of Wives?

24. Conclusions II We found substantial variation across communities in the wives’ land rights attitude index pointing in direction of substantial local variation in the social processes that are likely to influence women’s positions on these issues This may imply that provision of women’s name on the certificates needs to be accompanied with further awareness raising about their right according to the law in areas where women and men still have weak awareness of the law This may be an area where donor support also could reduce the budgetary constraint that is faced 24 Joint Land Certification and Intra-household Decision-making: Towards Empowerment of Wives?

25. Thank you for your attention! 25 Comments are welcome! Those of you interested in more details can find relevant papers in the following web sites: www.steinholden.com www.nmbu.no/clts Joint Land Certification and Intra-household Decision-making: Towards Empowerment of Wives?

26. Generosity and social distance in dictator game 26 The Ethiopian land reform has been successful in Strengthening women’s land rights and position within the household