Some Macroeconomic Aspects of Land Ownership

SUMMARY Land administration ('the process of determining, recording, and disseminating information about ownership, value and use of land when implementing land management policies' according to UN Land Administration Guidelines 1996) facilitates -inter alia - land tenure security, the land market, land use planning and control, land taxation and management of natural resources. This paper aims at addressing the significance of secure land ownership for society in microeconomic terms, such as regarding economic property rights and the transaction costs. The paper is to be considered as complementary to a paper at the FIGregional conference in Marrakech (2003) that looked at macroeconomic aspects.