Land titling and informal property rights: Critique and consensus of Hernando de Soto theory

Journal title ARCHIVIO DI STUDI URBANI E REGIONALI
Author/s Cora Fontana
Publishing Year 2017 Issue 2017/120
Language Italian Pages 22 P. 141-162 File size 198 KB
DOI 10.3280/ASUR2017-120007
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

Land titling is one of the main shared strategies to cope with the issue of urban in-formality in the Global South. One of the most relevant and well-known contributions is the one provided by Hernando de Soto. Defined together one of the best economists in the world and "guru of neo-liberal populism", de Soto attracted both important endorsements and harsh criticisms. The contribution of this paper is to provide a framework of de Soto main achievements, in terms of international impact of his theories.

Keywords: Informality; property rights; poverty; extra-legality; land titling

  1. Balbo M. (2014). Beyond the city of developing countries. The new urban order of the “emerging city”. Planning Theory, 13(3): 269-287. DOI: 10.1177/147309521349609
  2. Benda-Beckmann F. (2003). Mysteries of capital or mystification of legal property? Focaal- European Journal of Anthropology, 41: 187-191.
  3. Bromley R. (2004). Power, Property, and Poverty: Why de Soto’s "Mystery of Capital" Cannot Be Soved? In: Roy A. and AlSayyad N., eds., Urban Informality: Transnational Perspectives from the MIddle East, Latin America, and South Asia. New York: Lexington Books, 271-288.
  4. Bromley D.W. (2008). Formalising property relations in the developing world: The wrong prescription for the wrong malady. Land Use Policy, 26: 20-27.
  5. Bruce J. (2006). Reform of Land Law in the Context of World Bank Lending. In: Bruce J., Mitchell R., Giovarelli R., Rolfes L. and Bledsoe D., eds., Land Law Reform. Washington DC: The International Bank for Recontruction and Development, World Bank, 11-64.
  6. Buckley R. and Kalarickal J. (2006). Land Market Issues: The Mystery of Capitalism Revisited. Urban Land Policy: Is Titling the Answer? Thirty Years of World Bank Shelter Lending: What Have We Learned? Washington DC: World Bank, 28- 30.
  7. Calderon J. (2007). Después de la formalización ¿Qué sigue? Paper presented at the World Bank Urban Research Symposium, Whashington, May.
  8. Calderon J. (2010). Titulaciόn de la propriedad y mercado inmobiliario. Estudios Demograficos y Urbanos, 25(3): 625-661.
  9. Calderon J. (2011). Titulación de la propriedad y mercado de tierras. EURE. Revista de Estudios Urbano Regionales, 37(111): 47-77. DOI: 10.4067/S0250-71612011000200003
  10. CLEP (2008). Making the Law Work for Everyone. New York: The Commision on Legal Empowerment of the Poor.
  11. Coppola A. (2013). Evolutions and permanences in the politics (and policy) of informality: notes on the Roman case. Urbanistica tre, 1 (2): 35-42.
  12. Cousins B., Cousins T., Hornby D., Kingwill R., Royston L. and Smit W. (2005). Will formalising property rights reduce poverty in South Africa’s “second economy”? Questioning the Mythologies of Hernando de Soto. Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies- PLAAS, “Debating land reform, natural resources and poverty”, Policy Brief, 18: 1-6, October.
  13. CVR (2003). Enforme final de la Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación. Lima.
  14. Davis M. (2006). Planet of Slums. London: Verso.
  15. de Soto H. (1986). El Otro Sendero: La Revolución Informal. Lima: Editorial El Barranco.
  16. de Soto H. (2000). The Mystery Of Capital: Why Capitalis Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else. New York: Basic Books.
  17. de Soto H. (2001). The Mistery of Capital. Finance and Development, 38(1).
  18. de Soto H. (2002a). The Other Path: The Economic Answer to Terrorism. Washington DC: Basic Books.
  19. de Soto H. (2002b). Law and property outside the west: a few new ideas about fighting poverty. Forum for Development Studies, 29(2): 349-361.
  20. de Soto H. (2004). Bringing Capitalism to the Masses. Cato’s Letter, 2: 1-6.
  21. Durand-Lasserve A., Fernandes E., Payne G. and Rakodi C. (2007). Social and economic impacts of land titling programmes in urban and peri-urban areas: A review of the literature: Final Report to SIDA and GLTN, March.
  22. Durand-Lasserve A. and Selod H. (2007). The formalisation of urban land tenure in developing countries. Working Paper for the World Bank’s 2007 Urban Research Symposium,. Washington DC. May 14-16.
  23. Earle L. (2014). Stepping out of the Twilight? Assessing the Governance Implications of Land Titling and Regularization Programmes. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 38(2): 628-645. DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427.1211
  24. Fernandes E. (2002). The Influence of de Soto’s The Mistery of Capital. Land Lines, 14(1): 5-8.
  25. Fernandes E. (2003). Programas de regularización de la tenencia de la tierra urbana y pobreza urbana en Latinoamerica. Vivienda Popular, 12: 5-16.
  26. Fernandes E. (2011). Regularização de Assentamentos Informais na América Latina. Cambridge. USA. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
  27. Galiani S. and Schargrodsky E. (2010). Property rights for the poor: Effects of land titling. Journal of Public Economies, 94: 700-729.
  28. Gilbert A. (2002). On the mystery of capital and the myths of Hernando de Soto: What difference does legal title make? International Development Planning Review, 24(1): 1-19.
  29. Gilbert A. (2012). De Soto's The Mystery of Capital: reflections on the book’s public impact. International Development Planning Review, 34(3): v- xviii.
  30. Gravois J. (2005). The de Soto Delusion. Slate. January 9th. Testo disponibile al sito: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/hey_wait_a_minute/2005/01/the_de_soto_delusion.html.
  31. Helmsing A.H.J. (2002). Decentralisation, enablement, and local governance in low-income countries. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 20(3): 317-340.
  32. IDB – Inter-American Development Bank (2006). Building Opportunity for the Majority. Washington DC: IDB.
  33. Kinsella N.S. (2002). Book Reviews. Hernando de Soto. The Mystery of Capital. Journal of Libertarian Studies, 16(1): 99-114.
  34. Mc Farlane C. (2012). The Entrepreneurial Slum: Civil Society, Mobility and Co-production of Urban Development. Urban Studies, 49(13): 2795-2816. DOI: 10.1177/004209801245246
  35. Meier M.Q. (2014). La victoria del Perù sobre el terror. Cuando el Perù se escapò de su propria trampa. Entrevista a Hernando de Soto. El Comercio.
  36. Obeng-Odoom F. (2013). The Mistery of Capital or the Mystification of Capital? Review of Social Economy, 71(4): 427-442. DOI: 10.1080/00346764.2012.76175
  37. Otto J.M. (2009). Rule of Law Promotion, Land Tenure and Poverty Alleviation: Questioning the Assumption of Hernando de Soto. Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, 1: 173-195. DOI: 10.1017/S187640450900173
  38. P&DM. (2007). Are Hernando de Soto’s views appropriate to South Africa? Parktown, Johannesbrug: Graduate School of Public and Development Management.
  39. Panaritis E. (2001). Do Property rights matter? An urban case study from Peru. Global Outlook: International Urban Research Monitor, I: 20-22.
  40. Payne G. (2008). Owning up: what price home ownership?. Housing Finance International, December: 1-11.
  41. Payne G., Durand-Lasserve A. and Rakodi C. (2009). The limits of land titling and home ownership. Environment and Urbanization, 21(2): 443-462. DOI: 10.1177/095624780934436
  42. Rossini R.G. and Thomas J.J. (1990). The Size of the Informal Sector in Peru: A Critical Comment on Hernando de Soto’s El Otro Sendero. World Development, 18(1): 125-135.
  43. Roy A. (2005). Urban Informality: Toward an Epistemology of Planning. Journal of the American Planning Association, 71(2): 147. DOI: 10.1080/0194436050897668
  44. Rutten M. (2009). Why de Soto’s land tenure ideas of formalized property rigths are failing to benefit the Africa’s poor. African Studies Centre Netherlands. Info Sheet, 6.
  45. Sjaastad E. and Cousins B. (2008). Formalisation of land rights in the South: An overview. Land Use Policy, 26: 1-9.
  46. UN-Habitat (2016). World cities report 2016. Urbanization and Development: Emerging Futures. Nairobi: United Nations Human Settlements Programme.
  47. Vargas Llosa M. (1986). Prologo. El Otro Sendero: La Revolucion Informal: Lima, Editorial El Barranco.
  48. Varley A. (2002). Private or public: debating the meaning of tenure legalization. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 26(3): 449-461. DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427.00392
  49. Ward P.M. (2012). Housing Policies in Developing Countries. In: Smith S.J., ed., International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home. San Diego: Elsevier, 559-572.
  50. Ward P.M., de Souza F., Giusti C. and Larson J.E. (2011). El Titulo en la Mano: The Impact of Titling Programs on Low- Income Housing in Texas Colonias. Law & Social Inquiry, 36(1): 1-82.
  51. Woodruff C. (2001). Review of de Soto’s “The Mystery of Capital”. Journal of Economic Literature, 39(4): 1215-1223.
  52. World Bank (1993). Housing: Enabling Markets to Work. Washington DC: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
  53. World Bank. (2004). Understanding Regulation. Doing Business in 2004. Washington DC: World Bank.
  54. World Bank. (2005). Removing Obstacles to Growth. Doing Business in 2005. Washington DC: World Bank.

Cora Fontana, La titolarizzazione della proprietà informale. Consensi e critiche del pensiero di Hernando de Soto in "ARCHIVIO DI STUDI URBANI E REGIONALI" 120/2017, pp 141-162, DOI: 10.3280/ASUR2017-120007