The Economic Impacts of Land Tenure Policy in Ethiopia. A Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) Based Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Model Analysis

Policy reforms are an integral and continuing features of development economics. These reforms are motivated by a variety of factors like adjustment to debt crisis and recunent external price shocks, the failure of central planning in alleviating poverty and as an approach to accelerated economic growth, the continuing push for democratization which places poverty issues more prominent and the advance in economic theory are but a few. In the case of Ethiopia, the reason is more mundane. Although all of the above factors no doubt play a crucial role in the ongoing debate on the country's economic policies, the motivation to reform the land tenure policy largely comes from the desire to see Ethiopians feed themselves. Here is a country whose nearly seventy five million people live on the margins of life and death caused by hunger and famine. Ethiopia's agricultural sector is chronically deficient and year after year severe famine is averted through international food aid. What can Ethiopians do to change this sony state of affairs? Can policy reforms address these issues and if so what are they and how can they be implemented?