Peruvian property titling failed to boost credit but raised work effort

Evidence

The program appeared to have a remarkable effect, though not the one anticipated. A number of studies of the Peruvian experiment found that property titles had no significant effect on access among the poor to business credit (Cockburn 2000; Field and Torero 2002; and other studies cited there). Mortgage lending did eventually increase, but only after a new government abandoned de Soto’s neoliberal prescriptions and began to subsidize low-income mortgages. However, another study found an unexpected change in the economic lives of those who became formal property owners: they began to work harder. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1925

Categorization

• SEED: A case-study counterexample to property-rights-centered development doctrine, worth developing as an essay on the gap between policy theory and measured outcomes.
• XREF: Contrasts with the Milgrom/Roberts law-merchant material on how institutions substitute for credit screening, and with Bernanke-style credit-access policy debates. — connects to: Bank-funded research showed property titling failed to increase credit for the poor — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1954; Peruvian property titles shifted household labor toward outside work and adults — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1926; Staggered rollout of a titling program enabled a natural experiment in Peru — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1938

Broader Connections

• Peruvian property titles shifted household labor toward outside work and adults #expands (0.92) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1926
• Staggered rollout of a titling program enabled a natural experiment in Peru #corroborates (0.70) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1938