2019a) while increasing rental market transfers of land to more productive young producers, off-farm labor supply by older farmers, and profits through a shift from grains to vegetables and other higher value crops (Deininger _et al._ 2020b). Rural land record computerization that did not alter the nature of rights but the ease of accessing them increased the level of rental market activity and allocative efficiency in Pakistan by allowing land transfers to more productive farmers (Beg 2022). Documentation of use rights activated rental markets in Ethiopia, increasing women’s participation (Bezabih _et al._ 2016) and reducing resource misallocation (Chen _et al._ 2022). Historically, reforms to replace oral short-term rental contracts with written ones for a longer term, together with a public body for enforcement, fostered tenants’ investment in irrigation and drainage, leading to significant efficiency gains in Taiwan, China (Fan & Yeh 2019).

_Credit access:_ Given its immobility and virtual indestructability, land is excellent collateral. If land markets are active, foreclosure in case of default is possible, and lack of title prevents credit-worthy borrowers from implementing profitable investment projects, registering land rights can quickly increase credit access and investment (de Soto 2000). While hopes of land titling in developing countries increasing credit access were often disappointed as one or more of these conditions were not in place, privatization of state housing in China alleviated credit constraints by allowing households to capitalize on the value of the real estate (Wang 2012). Data from the developed world also document the importance of this channel: Legal changes allowing land to be used as collateral resulted in higher property values (Zevelev 2021) while exogenous fluctuations in housing wealth improved financial well-being (Atalay & Edwards 2022) or increased property owners’ propensity to take up entrepreneurship (Schmalz _et al._ 2017). In India, record digitization improved credit access in relatively less distorted urban markets (Deininger & Goyal 2012).

_Individual empowerment and risk taking:_ By providing implicit insurance, documented land rights enable the individuals holding such rights to pursue more risky projects with higher average returns. Having individual land rights documented rather than just defined in abstract makes them easier to enforce and programs to issue documents in women’s name have been shown to increase their soil fertility investment (Ali _et al._ 2014); participation in land (Holden _et al._ 2011), labor (Field 2007; Goldstein _et al._ 2018), and financial markets (Ali & Deininger 2021b); and their bargaining power (Menon _et al._ 2017) and influence over spending decisions (Wang 2014). Providing squatters with documented rights caused them to become more entrepreneurial and willing to take risks in Argentina (Di Tella _et al._ 2007), a result mirrored by effects of Peru’s urban titling program (Aragón _et al._ 2020).

_State capacity for service delivery:_ Property registries to facilitate taxation and market operation are a key component of states’ ability to effectively deliver public goods and their legal and fiscal capacity (Besley & Persson 2009), the social contract, and citizens’ trust. Panel regressions for 160 countries show a strong association between land registry development and economic growth in the 1960-2015 period (d'Arcy _et_ 10