Property Rights and Land Market Dynamics: An Economic Interpretation of the Indigenous Land Tenure Transformation Process in Nigeria

Abstract

This study examines the nature and causes of the evolution of property rights, with particular emphasis on the role of market forces in shaping its outcome. Using the Nigerian Land Use Act as the platform, it constructs an evolutionary theory of property rights assignment that recognizes the role of cultural and political forces, while giving primacy to economic considerations. It concludes that the behavior of Nigerian landowners to the regulatory shock is consistent with rational economic considerations but inconsistent with the expectations of the confiscatory legislation. The study employs data on landowners' applications for the formalization of existing property rights to the new `Right of Occupancy' over the first 15 years of implementation. The test of the landowner response to this requirement concludes that landowners are holding back on statutory formalization of their property rights as a rational response to the legislation.