Land registration in Thailand has significant positive long-run effects on financial development and economic growth.Using an economywide conceptual framework, the author analyzes how land registration affects financial development and economic growth in Thailand.He uses contemporary techniques, such as error correction and co-integration, to deal with such problems as time-series data not being stationary. He also uses the auto-regressive distributed lag model to analyze long lags in output response to changes in land registration.His key findings:-Land titling has significant positive long-run effects on financial development.-Economic growth responds to land titling following a J curve, by first registering a fall and recovering gradually, thereafter to post a long, strong rally.-The quality of land registration services, as measured by public spending on land registration, has strongly positive and significant long-run effects on economic growth.This paper - a product of the Rural Development and Natural Resources Sector Unit, East Asia and Pacific Region - is part of a larger effort in the region to increase the effectiveness of country assistance strategies in the area of property rights and economic development. The author may be contacted at [email protected].

Land registration in Thailand has significant positive long-run effects on financial development and economic growth.

A theoretical framework to guide empirical analysis of how land registration affects financial development and economic growth.

"Explicit deposit insurance tends to be detrimental to bank stability-- the more so where bank interest rates are deregulated and the institutional environment is weak"--Cover.

"Markets have had limited success predicting crises and might do better by drawing on private information available to resident enterprise managers, who seem to know better than markets about future movements in exchange rates"--Cover.

"Governments in many developing countries are looking to private concessionaires to improve water and sanitation services in low-income areas. To design pro-poor concession arrangements in the water sector, policy makers must pay careful attention to how the proposed contract and existing or proposed regulations will affect the obligations, ability, and financial incentives of the private concessionaires to serve low-income households"--T.p.

Abstract: December 1999 - Nonfarm economic growth in India had very different effects on poverty in different states. Nonfarm growth was least effective at reducing poverty in states where initial conditions were poor in terms of rural development and human resources. Among initial conditions conducive to pro-poor growth, literacy plays a notably positive role. Ravallion and Datt use 20 household surveys for India's 15 major states, spanning 1960-94, to study how initial conditions and the sectoral composition of economic growth interact to influence how much economic growth reduced poverty. The elasticities of measured poverty to farm yields and development spending did not differ significantly across states. But the elasticities of poverty to (urban and rural) nonfarm output varied appreciably, and the differences were quantitatively important to the overall rate of poverty reduction. States with initially lower farm productivity, lower rural living standards relative to those in urban areas, and lower literacy experienced a less pro-poor growth process. This paper - a joint product of Poverty and Human Resources, Development Research Group, and the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Sector Unit, South Asia Region - is part of a larger effort in the Bank to better understand the conditions required for pro-poor growth. The authors may be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected].