Assessing the relationships between property rights and technology adoption in smallholder agriculture: a review of issues and empirical methods

Studies of the relationships between property rights and t echnology adoption are complicated in several respects. First there are challenges involved in defining and measuring property rights and tenure security. Second there are several different valid purposes for undertaking such studies and each purpose m ay require a different approach. Third there are a number of difficult theoretical and empirical issues involved in such studies particularly in defining technology identifying key dimensions of property rights and accounting for the endogeneous deter mination of property rights. Through a synthesis and evaluation of previous studies this paper identifies key issues and develops guidelines for conducting research on the relationships between property rights and technology adoption in smallholder agri culture. It seeks to benefit researchers and policy makers wishing to undertake or interpret empirical research. The topics addressed in the paper are: definition of scope and terms; key issues pertaining to the relationships between technology adoption and property rights variables; data collection and measurement issues; and analyses and interpretation of findings. The primary target groups for this paper are researchers and policy analysts.

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