Explore the vast range of titles available.

Real estate—housing in particular—is a less profitable investment in the long run than previously thought. We hand-collect property-level financial data for the institutional real estate portfolios of four large Oxbridge colleges over the period 1901–1983. Gross income yields initially fluctuate around 5%, but then trend downward (upward) for agricultural and residential (commercial) real estate. Long-term real income growth rates are close to zero for all property types. Our findings imply annualized real total returns, net of costs, ranging from approximately 2.3% for residential to 4.5% for agricultural real estate.

A real property item of the secondary housing market is presented in a form of a multilevel hierarchical structure. An overall evaluation of a consumer appeal for the object under the study is carried out in terms of the chosen key indicators of housing appraisal with an application of the theory of quality, which is based on the quasi-arithmetic functional mean proposed by Kolmogorov-Nagumo. The elaborated methodology allows customers to choose the best variant of a real property item taking into account architectural and constructive decision of a building, usage of construction and finish materials, accessibility of urban and transport infrastructures, ecological area, as well as personal preferences.

Coastal communities in New Jersey (NJ), New York (NY), and Connecticut (CT) sustained huge structural loss during Sandy in 2012. We present a comprehensive science-based study to assess the role of coastal wetlands in buffering surge and wave in the tri-state by considering Sandy, a hypothetical Black Swan (BS) storm, and the 1% annual chance flood and wave event. Model simulations were conducted with and without existing coastal wetlands, using a dynamically coupled surge-wave model with two types of coastal wetlands. Simulated surge and wave for Sandy were verified with data at numerous stations. Structural loss estimated using real property data and latest damage functions agreed well with loss payout data. Results show that, on zip-code scale, the relative structural loss varies significantly with the percent wetland cover, the at-risk structural value, and the average wave crest height. Reduction in structural loss by coastal wetlands was low in Sandy, modest in the BS storm, and significant in the 1% annual chance flood and wave event. NJ wetlands helped to avoid 8%, 26%, 52% loss during Sandy, BS storm, and 1% event, respectively. This regression model can be used for wetland restoration planning to further reduce structural loss in coastal communities.

Panel data from Rwanda allow us to explore costs and benefits from land fragmentation in a non-mechanized setting using two methodological improvements, namely (i) a terrain-adjusted measure of travel time/cost required to visit all parcels to measure fragmentation; and (ii) instrumental variable (IV) approaches that use measures for inherited/allocated parcels and past displacement as instruments. Results suggest that fragmentation as measured by travel cost negatively affect yield, intensity of labor use, and technical efficiency while reducing yield variability. With some 7 percent increase in yields, the size of the estimated impact of potential consolidation remains modest, suggesting that in an unmechanized setting such as the one studied here, the costs of programs to reduce fragmentation may outweigh the benefits.

This paper suggests that inequality in the distribution of landownership adversely affected the emergence of human-capital promoting institutions (e.g. public schooling), and thus the pace and the nature of the transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy, contributing to the emergence of the great divergence in income per capita across countries. The prediction of the theory regarding the adverse effect of the concentration of landownership on education expenditure is established empirically based on evidence from the beginning of the 20th century in the U.S.

This article analyses the determinants of growing demand for agricultural land in developing countries. We propose some determinants that are specific to foreign acquisitions of agricultural land as a subset of agricultural foreign direct investment (FDI) and empirically examine the corresponding locational choice. Using a gravity model and a data set on land acquisitions worldwide, we find that the determinants partly overlap with those for other forms of FDI but are specific in certain regards. Rich investors target (poorer) economies with abundant land and water resources, and the effects of the quality of institutions are ambiguous.

Agricultural mechanisation promotes continuous cultivation on a piece of land and expansion of the area under cultivation, thereby intensifying competition for land. This impacts the land tenure system based on customary land tenure and communal landholding that thrived under land fallowing. Situated within the evolutionary theory of land rights and adopting an empirical qualitative research approach, this paper examines the effects of agricultural mechanisation on customary land tenure relations in Ghana's Transitional Zone. The paper argues that the widespread adoption of agricultural mechanisation has led to farm extensification and intensification which have engendered intense competition and conflicts over land and trends towards individual landholding. This has provided the arsenals for manipulation by the powerful in society and ushering in a new form of customary land tenure relations that replaces traditional social relations with capitalist relations and creates tension between allodial rights holders and the usufructuary and customary tenancy rights holders

This study contributes to the literature on the drivers of migration and employment choices, with a particular focus on youth in Nigeria. It evaluates the effect of young Nigerians’ expected land inheritance on the likelihood of their migration and on their employment and livelihood choices. We conducted a series of differential analyses on data from two Nigeria Living Standards Measurement Study panel surveys to understand the likelihood of migration and employment decisions being influenced by land inheritance, while also considering social and economic mediating factors such as the level of land market development and levels of urbanization. Overall, our findings seem to suggest that land inheritance, proxied by the size of expected land inheritance, is significantly and negatively associated with long-distance migration and with migration to urban areas, while the impact is negligible when a broader definition of migration is adopted and when migration is deemed as temporary. We find heterogeneous responses to land inheritance among various groups of youth, as well as varying responses to different levels of land market development and levels of urbanization. The results indicate that older youth and those who are less educated are more likely to respond to different levels of land market development and urbanization. We also show that the larger the size of expected land inheritance, the lower the likelihood that a young person will be involved in nonagricultural activities and the higher his or her chance of staying in agriculture. These results suggest that improving the inheritance of land by youth will guarantee more success in deterring unrewarding migration and employment choices by those less educated.

This paper examined, by literature, four principal conceptual issues that are germane to outdoor advertising billboard valuation namely; the concept of outdoor advertising billboard itself, the tripartite components of the billboard property, billboard legal status controversy and the money trail concept. A review of these conceptual issues was critically carried out, pinpointing their implications to valuation of billboards for many purposes such as compensation so as to enhance understanding of estate surveyors and valuers, especially in Nigeria. Findings from the literature are that; modern billboards are diverse in nature (material, displays and technology), there is no consensus yet about whether billboard is real or personal property and that the task of allocating income to the different assets that contribute to the total business value of an outdoor advertising business is herculean. While valuers should improve their understanding of the criteria that qualify an asset as real or personal property and treat each billboard to be valued on its own merit, educational and training institution in Nigeria should encourage capacity building in outdoor advertising billboard valuation.