Is Women’s Ownership of Land a Panacea in Developing Countries? Evidence from Land-Owning Farm Households in Malawi

Our analysis of a rich representative household survey for Malawi, where patrilineal and matrilineal institutions coexist, suggests that: in matrilineal societies the likelihood of high-value crop cultivation by a household increases with the extent of land owned by males, while the income generated from high-value crop production decreases with the amount of land owned by females; and the cultivation of high-value crops increases household welfare. The policy implication is that facilitating female ownership of assets through informal and formal institutions does not, on its own, increase welfare when appropriate complementary resources and institutions are absent.