Entitled to Work: Urban Property Rights and Labor Supply in Peru

Abstract

This brief summarizes the results of a gender impact evaluation study, entitled Entitled to work : urban property rights and labor supply in Peru, new legal rights were issued in 1996; project teams providing titling service through 2003, in Peru. The study observed that between 1996 and 2003, the Peruvian government issued property titles to over 1.2 million urban households, the largest titling program targeted at urban squatters in the developing world. This paper examines the labor market effects of increases in tenure security resulting from the program. Pre-program squatters in program neighborhoods were significantly more likely to report improved tenure security, by 60 percent. Similarly, program participants were 18.8 percentage points less likely to report a high likelihood of eviction or invasion and 18.8 percentage points more likely to report that their dwelling was currently very secure from eviction or invasion. The likelihood of working inside the home significantly falls by 11.6 percentage points for the average squatter family with two program periods.