Credibility Thesis Research Articles

Advocacy and credibility of land tenure in Ethiopia: Mitigating conflicts and threats

Social inequality resulting from war, exploitation, and land property is very evident in Ethiopia, which has a significant influence on the economic, social, and political situation of various groups of people. As a result, the primary objective of this study was to assess the significance of the Credibility Thesis in resolving land conflicts via the Formal, Actual, and Targeted (FAT) Institutional Framework. Moreover, this study was conducted to identify the key features and the role of credibility analysis in mitigating land conflicts by employing the Credibility Scales and Intervention (CSI) Checklist. To achieve this goal, a comprehensive literature review including land tenure studies from 1979 to 2020 was conducted. This review used original databases to ensure a comprehensive and extensive exploration of relevant scientific works. The results showed that the land problem in Ethiopia is not only related to the dynamics of social change and inequality at different global, regional, national, and transnational levels, but also provides access to land resources, the foundations of authority, livelihood, property, and citizenship. Furthermore, the lack of land security for non-indigenous minorities contributes to substantial ambiguity for land rights. Therefore, measures to increase land security and transfer land tenure can have an important influence on productivity and should be prioritized by policymakers. These measures may include elements from active land certification initiatives, but they should also specify the legal credit of certifications issued in the system and how to execute them.

Credibility and the Social Function of Property: A Saga of Mega-Dams, Eviction, and Privatization, as Told by Displaced Communities in Malaysia

Globally, the forced displacement of socially vulnerable communities causes significant contestation, irrespective of whether that occurs for mega-projects or smaller infrastructural, agricultural, urban renewal, or property developments. Despite multilateral guidelines for “socially inclusive” development, it is difficult to avoid the marginalization of evicted, local communities. Grounded on the credibility thesis, this article provides a new, theoretical basis for understanding the “social function of property” and how this may be used as a criterion to assess whether development-induced and resettlement projects should be given the go-ahead. Methodologically, this article employs the FAT (Formal, Actual, and Targeted) Institutional Framework to unpack the social function of property. To this end, it analyzes the acquisition and privatization of the common property of Indigenous Peoples to construct the Malaysian Bakun Hydroelectric Project, purportedly Asia’s second-largest dam. The FAT analysis ascertains the following three conditions on which basis projects should be halted: (1) the property of the evicted communities fulfills a critical role in providing social welfare; (2) the said function is disregarded by the expropriating agency; (3) the power divides between the expropriator and expropriated prevent meaningful participation by the latter. This study demonstrates that the social function of property can be effectively measured and validates the FAT Framework as a viable tool to analyze development-induced projects (and policies), with particular reference to expropriation, privatization, and formalization.

Urban land policy and urban land use efficiency: An analysis based on remote sensing and institutional credibility thesis

Ethiopia has an urban land lease policy in place to facilitate the transfer of land for residential, commercial and industrial purposes. Because of the lease policy, many cities have experienced significant expansion through massive conversion of agricultural land. Although the lease policy has been in place for nearly three decades, little is known about its effectiveness in promoting sustainable urban land use. This paper examines the effects of the lease policies on urban land use efficiency (ULUE). Building on the institutional credibility thesis, this paper investigated the performance of land institutions using the urban land use efficiency approach. Remote sensing data was used to investigate urban land use efficiency through spatiotemporal analysis of land use change. Analysis of satellite imagery was performed using ArcGIS. Moreover, quantitative and qualitative data from secondary sources were studied. The study findings show that in almost all study areas, urban land use efficiency is low, which is mainly reflected in the forms of land hoarding, land banking, illegal land grabbing, informal settlement, land use fragmentation and urban sprawl. A significant portion of the land transferred for various urban uses has remained vacant or underutilised for years, in direct violation of the provisions of the lease policy. This means that the lease policy has hardly been enforced to ensure efficient urban land utilization. This demonstrates the ineffectiveness (dysfunctionality) of the existing land institutions. It is concluded that some elements of the lease policy have evolved into an empty institution, i.e., a symbolic institutional arrangement that is largely ignored by socioeconomic and political actors.

The credibility thesis – A commentary from an original institutionalist position

This paper delivers an evaluation of the credibility thesis (CT) based on perspectives from original institutional economics. I first ask in what kind of explanation CT is grounded. Emphasizing functionality and denouncing intentionality, may indicate that it adheres to a functionalist type. At the same time, it does not seem to fulfil the criteria for such an explanation. CT explicitly refutes the idea of institutions in equilibrium. Second, I evaluate the proposal underlying CT that function supersedes form. I conclude that such a position cannot be generally defended. Form may even in some cases define what is understood as functional. Third, I therefore ask how to explain what institutions evolve and persist if they neither are chosen intentionally nor stabilized by functionalist mechanisms like an equilibrium. While there is definitive merit to the thesis and the research it has motivated, my analysis points towards a need for some reformulations.

Credibility of legalization: Illegally constructed buildings in Serbia

The paper analyses the credibility of the legalization policies regarding illegally constructed buildings (ICBs) in Serbia in the socialist and post-socialist periods. It introduces the conceptual framework of the credibility thesis concerning informal institutions in an empirical examination of the credibility of legalization policy measures in Serbia. The analysis identifies the main causes of vast illegal construction, and the types and credibility of planning measures and legalization policies, using the Credibility thesis as a breakthrough in planning practice. The findings show the failure of planning and the non-credibility of legalization policies, as well as the survival of ICBs as an autonomous form of property rights.

Revisiting institutional credibility of informal rental housing in Shenzhen: For dwelling function or exclusion function?

The credibility thesis premises that an institution's endogenous credibility and function, rather than its form, ensures its persistence. Informal rental housing (IRH), an informal housing institution in China, was suggested to serve as a dwelling for low-income residents in previous research on institutional credibility. Combining the institutional functionalism in credibility thesis and the relational and constructivist perspective in the strategic-relational approach (SRA), this research on two distinct SPRH cases in Shenzhen aims to re-examine the credibility thesis, moving the emphasis away from institutional functions toward the interaction between function and dysfunction, and their substitutability in the relation reconstruction dynamics. It reveals that the informal housing institution's credibility rationale has shifted in Shenzhen. Instead of serving a dwelling function, IRH is becoming an investment tool for profit-making and a part of public service for government targets, contributing to the credibility of informal housing and exacerbating the exclusion of the disadvantaged groups from urban areas. IRH's institutional credibility is contingent upon not just the endogenous institutional function, but also on the interplay of the function and dysfunction embedded in its institutional environment.

Strategizing actors and agents in the functioning of informal property Rights: The tragicomedy of the extralegal housing market in China

This paper engages with the ongoing theoretical enquiry into the actual functioning and diverse practices of informal property rights. Departing from the prevailing neoliberal perspective and the credibility thesis, this paper develops a framework of institutional analysis to understand the functioning and regional variation of informal property rights. It takes the institutions-as-equilibria perspective and situates both structural and endogenous institutional variables in actors’ strategic choices. We test our conceptual framework through a multisite empirical study of extralegal and untitled housing in China. Building on game theory, archival research, and fieldwork, we compare the key variables contributing to the divergent fortunes of extralegal and untitled housing property rights in three Chinese cities: prospering in Shenzhen, selectively interfered with in Beijing, and eliminated in Sanya. The functioning of informal property rights is found to be contingent upon diverse strategic interactions of local governments and key local stakeholders. Our paper highlights the formation of local actors’ behavioral beliefs and their adjustment through a nonlinear feedback mechanism. It suggests the necessity and significance of integrating structural and endogenous institutional variables, elaborating on the interplay of formal and informal institutions, and applying the microeconomic and dynamic perspectives to better understand the functioning and diverse practices of informal property rights in the developing world.

Informal land leasing in rural India persists because it is credible

While insecure property rights are considered ‘perverse’ with respect to development, we examine what are the features most amenable for their persistence. Applying a Credibility Thesis framework in the context of rural land tenancy relations in India, that are largely held through private arrangements, we try to understand if there are inherent preferences to the existing informal structure of land leasing. An in-depth primary household survey across four states of India reveals that farmers rely on customary, informal mode of leasing arrangements because of their functionality in terms of no paperwork, easy accessibility, swifter modes of payment and prompt conflict resolution. Informality makes the existing institutional arrangement ‘credible’ in the eyes of both the tenants and owners. This raises the questions of whether policy prescriptions on intricate land related issues should entail appreciation of prevailing informal tenant customs, regulating them, or simply letting them be and realign agrarian support and delivery systems around this embedded informality.

An economic-psychological perspective on perceived land tenure security: Evidence from rural eastern China

Land tenure security perceived by farmers is generally considered an important precondition for rural development. In this paper, we first propose a holistic framework of land tenure security that integrates Van Gelder’s tripartite view of tenure security with Ho’s credibility thesis. Following this framework, we empirically investigate the interrelation between the cognitive and the affective components of tenure security perceptions, and analyze how these perceptions are influenced by psychological factors, such as personality traits and economic preferences. We apply the generalized structural equation modeling to a dataset collected in 2019 among 1359 rice farmers in three provinces in eastern China. We found that the cognitive component shows an inverse “U-shape” relationship with the affective component, indicating farmers are not necessarily worried about the possible future land reallocation even if they think it is very likely to take place and that the widely used indicator, i.e., estimated probability of land reallocation, is thereby not sufficient to reflect a farmer’s overall perceived tenure security. We also found that individual differences in personality traits (e.g., neuroticism) can help explain observed variations in perceived tenure security. The results showing perceived land tenure security of rural farmers also comprises nonequivalent “feeling” and “thinking” components and their influencing psychological factors have important implications for future research and policy making on rural institutional development.

Linking institutional function with form: Distributional dynamics, disequilibrium, and rural land shareholding in China

The “Credibility Thesis” of institutional analysis challenges the assumed relationship between institutional form and performance and argues that institutional forms follow institutional functions. An understudied issue concerns how changing institutional credibility (expression of the function) affects the evolution of institutions (the form). This article highlights the distributive function of institutions and examines how distributional dynamics shape institutional change when the credibility of an institution is problematic. By focusing on a major institutional innovation in China, the evolution of rural land shareholding, this article analyzes a unique distributional dynamic of land benefits that combines central institutional openings with local experiments. When institutional credibility is challenged, this central-local distributional dynamic engenders continuous changes in institutional form. Critically, this endogenous process of institutional change features dynamic disequilibrium rather than static or punctuated equilibrium.

Credibility measurement as a tool for conserving nature: Chinese herders’ livelihood capitals and payment for grassland ecosystem services

The involvement of land users, such as farmers and herders, is crucial in protecting ecosystems, and the Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) is often regarded as a suitable measure to achieve this. Simultaneously, PES programs have sometimes failed to deliver on their stated aims. This article moots that livelihood capitals and policy credibility are important to consider in the implementation of PES programs. Livelihood capitals affect land users’ perceptions towards ecological protection, which in turn, affect policy credibility. To assess the relation between policy credibility and livelihood capitals, we developed a theoretical framework predicated upon the credibility thesis and the sustainable livelihoods approach. We constructed quantitative models for the measurement of credibility, and for the assessment of the relation between credibility and livelihood capitals. The models were applied to a Payment for Grassland Ecosystem Services (PGES) scheme implemented in Inner Mongolia, China. We thus were able to pinpoint the mechanisms that explain how policy credibility affects herders’ livelihood capitals and livelihoods. This study contributes to the research on PGES and pastoralism by: 1) delineating a new approach for studying the endogenous mechanisms of credibility in relation to livelihood capitals; 2) providing a theoretical and methodological basis that enables differentiating ecological conservation policies for various target groups (i.e. full-time, part-time, and non-agricultural herders); 3) presenting a selection of operational measures that may be used following the implementation of the Credibility Scales and Intervention (CSI) policy tool.

Lessons of government centralization and credibility: A qualitative case-study of administrative change in Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve, China (1982–2018)

How to ensure adequate provision of public services in protected area management is a well-known debate. By using the credibility thesis as a theoretical and methodological tool, this paper furnishes a renewed look at how administrative changes affect the provision of public services. For this purpose, a detailed case-study is presented: the Jiuzhaigou National Nature Reserve in China. The analysis covers a period of 36 years (1982–2018) of administrative change in the protected area. It will be ascertained that the levels of administration for the reserve kept increasing, along with continuous changes in the corresponding government structure. The latter became increasingly centralized, leading to significant stagnation of the government at the “form” level and subsequent failure at the “function” level. Problems culminated in 2013 as large-scale social protests erupted, after which local villagers took matters into their own hands and single-handedly developed a rural development plan, which eventually received approval from the authorities. This detailed study shows that to overcome the deficiencies of a stalled governance system and improve credibility, the specific form of institutions – a centralized or decentralized administration – is of secondary importance as compared to the establishment and implementation of unambiguous policies, along with increased local participation, and transparent distribution of management responsibilities and authority.

Assessing conflict of farmland institutions using credibility theory: Implications for socially acceptable land use

Farmland institutional change has resulted in remarkable growth in agricultural productivity in rural China since the start of the economic reforms in 1978. Yet, numerous studies have signaled the emergence of conflicts because farmland institutions cannot adequately respond to the challenges of social and economic transition. These studies generally examine the level and/or frequency of conflict. Conversely, this research moots that a more comprehensive assessment of conflict is needed to understand the performance of farmland institutions. In this context, this study uses the Conflict Analysis Model (CAM) as predicated upon the credibility thesis to assess an additional set of variables, i.e., the source, actors, timing, intensity, and outcome of farmland-related conflicts. Based on a set of court cases (n = 133), farmland conflicts are classified into two types, pertaining to first, the termination of the contract right; second, the transfer of contract right. This study reports the following critical findings: (1) conflicts caused by the termination of the contract right are closely related to expropriation; (2) 90% of the conflict occurs between farmers (individuals or groups) versus authorities (local government or village committees); (3) they feature high conflict intensity and a late timing; (4) the most important source of farmland conflict pertaining to the transfer of contract right concerns disputes over the status holder of contract right; (5) around 50% of these conflicts occurs between farmers, while another 34% occurs between farmers vs. authorities; (6) this type of conflict features low intensity and early timing. It is concluded that empty institutions emerge since farmers and public administrations are unwilling or unable to implement farmland institutions. Furthermore, abusive behaviors of the actors that exercise public authority reduce the credibility of farmland institutions. This study offers new insights into realizing a more socially acceptable land use strategy in the socioeconomic transition of China in particular and of developing countries in general.

The Small Property Rights Housing Institution in Mainland China: The Perspective of Substitutability of Institutional Functions

Despite its informal nature, small property rights housing (SPRH) proliferates in many Chinese cities. Given the institutional functions of the SPRH institution, it may not be desirable for the state to intervene in the SPRH sector. However, the institutional credibility and the institutional functions of SPRH are not completely endogenous, which contradicts the assumption of the credibility thesis. Based on the framework of the credibility thesis, this paper proposes the concept of the substitutability of institutional functions and develops a framework integrating the concepts of substitutability and credibility to examine the influence of functional substitutability on institutional credibility. Research hypotheses were tested with the data collected through a questionnaire survey on SPRH residents in Shenzhen and Chenzhou (n = 458). The analysis results of the combined model suggest that the supportive perceptions of actors for SPRH and the credibility of SPRH are significantly related to the substitutability of SPRH’s functions. The effect of the substitutability of social housing on credibility is found insignificant, while the impact of the substitutability of commercial housing on credibility is significant. However, the analysis results are city-specific. A significant negative correlation is found between the substitutability of formal housing institutions and the credibility of SPRH in Chenzhou but not in Shenzhen. This study attempted to refine the credibility thesis by clarifying the relationship between institutional functions and institutional credibility and examining the endogeneity of credibility.

The changing credibility of institutions: how household registration systems (hukou) in Mainland China and Taiwan define immigrants’ social benefits

The hukou is one of the enduring institutions that defines social citizenship of residents/immigrants in mainland China. Whilst much discussion has focused on the Chinese case, relatively little attention has been paid to the system in Taiwan, to say nothing of a comparison between the two. This article seeks to enrich the discussion of the two hukou systems in terms of their functions in determining the access of cross-strait immigrants to social benefits in the respective host countries. Drawing on the ‘credibility thesis’, the analytical locus is placed on the continuity and change of institutional functions underlying the apparent persistence of institutional forms. When granting/withholding immigrants access to local social benefits, hukou systems fulfil several functions: firstly, a symbolic dimension, in which immigrants from both sides are (artificially) regarded as citizens of a divided nation rather than two separate countries; secondly, a substantial dimension that defines the scope and extent of social benefit entitlements granted to the immigrants in question; and finally, a management dimension that allows room for considerable administrative discretion in terms of adaptation to various circumstances arising from the unsettled state of cross-strait relations. Often times, realisation of these various functions is compounded by conflicts in identity politics, with repercussions for the generosity/rigidity of social inclusion for cross-strait immigrants. Evidence underpinning the theoretical elaboration stems from the analysis of legal documents regulating the social rights of immigrants in mainland China and Taiwan, supplemented by historical traces of the politics of cross-strait migration. The final findings should shed light on the facilitative/restrictive mechanisms of the hukou regulations in mainland China and Taiwan, highlighting the puzzling phenomenon that both hukou systems are gaining increasing significance in steering the cross-strait migration at a time when their functions in regulating domestic migration are changing, if not waning.

Institutional form versus function in a common property context: The credibility thesis tested through an agent-based model

A key debate in the study on land, housing and natural resources revolves around the notion that general institutional forms (such as private, common, public, and likewise formal property rights) lead to a certain institutional performance (as may be expressed in terms of prices, transaction costs or sustainability). However, a modest, yet, growing stream in institutional analysis aims to move away from ‘merely describing the characteristics’ of institutions (i.e., form variables) to ‘performance or quality measures’ (i.e., function variables). Following this line of argument, the credibility thesis as put forward in this journal (Ho, 2014) postulates that the form of institutions is unrelated to their performance, and institutions are unintentional outcomes rather than designed artefacts. The primary goal of this research is to ascertain whether this dual prediction could be observed in a simulation model that is driven by agent behaviour and interaction, resulting in emerging institutions. We devise an empirically verified agent-based model within a classical thought experiment on a common property resource to validate the thesis’ predictions. First, our model confirms that different forms of institutions can have a similar performance. Second, we ascertain that successful institutions in difficult management situations can emerge (rather than being designed) that are beneficial for the sustainability of the common resource and the appropriators of that resource.

The discipline of form: why the premise of institutional form does not apply to Chinese capital, technology, land and labor

China is an intellectually overwhelming paradox within development thinking. On the one hand, it is regarded as an economic powerhouse pushing forward decades of sustained growth, which even during major global crises, such as the Corona-epidemic and the 2008 Financial Crisis, bounced back with significant resilience. On the other hand, it appears burdened with all of the ‘wrong’ institutions: informal, insecure, and autocratic. This collection of papers posits that the paradox is no contradiction when understood through an alternative, theoretical lens: the function of institutions precedes form when trying to understand institutional performance. Thus, whether institutions are formal or informal, public or private, democratic or autocratic, is of secondary importance to the manner in which they function over time and space. To examine this hypothesis, known as the ‘credibility thesis’, the collection examines China’s institutions that govern: 1) capital; 2) technology; 3) land, and; 4) labor; in effect, state-owned banks, collective firms, corporate law and securities, patents and intellectual property rights, environmental bans, and the civil registration or hukou system. In so doing, it not only falsifies the widely prevalent assumption that institutional form determines performance, but concurrently, validates the applicability of the credibility thesis over widely varying sectors and assets.

Strategic ambiguity in policy formulation: exploring the function of the term “township and village enterprises” in china’s industrial ownership reforms

Ambiguity in policy formulation is a strategy setup with multifarious institutional flexibilities that maintain the credibility of functioning institutions. In the framework of the ‘credibility thesis’ as introduced by Peter Ho, this article posits that Chinese policymakers intentionally or unintentionally made a smart choice in coining the highly ambiguous term ‘TVEs’ for promoting institutional reforms on property rights, and providing a unique buffering effect for a (comparatively) smooth policy transition towards increasingly liberal reform agendas. Furthermore, TVEs’ content was evolving through time and consistently adapting to the interactions among various stakeholders in the reform process. The conceptual ‘3C’ model of strategic ambiguity in policy formulation elaborated by the evidence of TVEs might be an approach for China’s policy studies.

The China paradox: the endogenous relationship between law and economic growth

An enduring paradox of China’s remarkable economic growth is the lack of a well-established legal system. By drawing on the credibility thesis, this paper proposes that legal and economic reforms give rise to, and reinforce, the other and the market is underpinned by evolving institutions that are shaped by the expectations of the actors in the economy. It is thus not the form of institutions but their function that is more important in assessing institutional performance. A comparative examination of the USA at a similar stage of legal-institutional development to China provides support for an evolutionary, endogenous process. This institutional analysis will focus on key issues of economic legislation, such as corporate law, patent law and securities. Analyzing the relationship as complementary processes can help explain the paradox of strong economic growth within an under-developed system of law with potential, critical implications for institutional development in other countries.

The credibility and bargaining during the process of policy implementation—a case study of China’s prohibition of open burning of crop straw policy

The truncated decision-making of China’s public policy process will inevitably lead to palpable bargaining during implementation. However, there are few concerns and researches at present focus on bargaining intensity between government and social actors. Therefore, the Credibility Thesis is introduced to the policy process in this paper, and the differences of credibility perceived by the public, grassroots government and intermediate government are supposed to reflect the bargaining intensity among them. Based on the adjustability of policy targets and credibility differences, policy implementation is divided into eight types to explain diverse situations more systemically and effectively during policy implementation. Besides, taking prohibition of open burning of crop straw policy (POBSP) as an example, this paper measures the changes of credibility at three points of time during policy implementation and analyzes the bargaining situation among farmers and multi-level governments. The case study proves the applicability of the theoretical framework of the policy implementation based on credibility thesis. It can show the feedback procedure and mechanism of policy implementation, and provide a new perspective for the policy analysis and improving policy performance.