Land policy and the urban land market in Zambia: property rights, transaction costs, and institutional change

Musole, Maliti (2007) Land policy and the urban land market in Zambia: property rights, transaction costs, and institutional change. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This study examines, comparatively, the effects of Zambia's post-colonial (1975 and
1995) land policy reforms on the urban land market transactions. It focuses on land
delivery, land transfer and exchange, and land valuation and pricing. The central thesis
of the study is that land policy reforms matter even for the urban land market.
Proceeding from this premise, the study conceptualises the effects of land policy on the
land market as one set of institutions (namely, land policy reforms) modifying or
radically restructuring (and, hence, impacting on) the other set of institutions (viz.
property rights and the land market generally).
Grounded in the new institutional economics approach, the conceptual framework
focuses on property rights, transaction costs and institutional change. The philosophical
framework is post-positivist. Methodologically, the research design is largely qualitative
and employs a multiple data collection and analysis strategy. Central to this
methodological approach are the concepts of critical multiplism and triangulation.
The overall research findings suggest, overwhelmingly, that land policy reforms matter
to urban land market transactions. More specifically, the study finds that, in so far as
land delivery is concerned, both the 1975 and 1995 reforms had a similar detrimental
impact. However, their effects differed markedly in specific areas with regard to land
transfer and exchange, on the one hand, and land valuation and pricing, on the other. In
patticular, the latter reforms were less pernicious than the former. Consequently, the
study recommends land policy reforms that minimise the policy-generated detrimental
effects identified in the land market operations. The effects in question naturally revolve
around property rights and transaction costs.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General); K Law > K Law (General)
• Colleges/Schools: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Urban Studies
• Supervisor's Name: Adams, Prof. David
• Date of Award: 2007
• Depositing User: Miss Louise Annan
• Unique ID: glathesis:2007-4951
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 12 Feb 2014 11:10
• Last Modified: 12 Feb 2014 14:42
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/4951