Institutionalization of Land Property Titles’ Market as a Factor of Ensuring Economic Competitiveness

Abstract

The institutionalization of the land property titles’ market is presented in the article as a system of state measures on the enhancement of the institutional market regulators aimed at the efficient use of land resources. Based on the monitoring of the performance of local markets in 2018–2019 in three economic zones of the Volgograd region with different land quality (high-quality, medium-quality, low-quality), we have revealed and ranked price and institutional factors by the level of importance. Three groups of issues justifying the necessity of policy on further institutionalization of the land property titles’ market have been identified. The first issue is related to the controversial mechanism for disposal of titles to share in land under institutional restrictions. Joint ownership in agricultural land contributes to the development of informal relations, the manifestation of opportunistic behavior, and the growth of transaction costs. The second issue arises from the first one and demonstrates the conditions of local markets’ performance. After the expert assessment, we ranked the factors restraining the development of market relations by the level of importance: high transaction costs of land circulation, registration of land ownership title, opportunistic behavior and contracting. The third issue is caused by information asymmetry of agricultural lands in information systems and almost restrains the solution of the above issues. The solution of the issues revealed is systemic, therefore it requires the execution of a set of measures to enhance the market and institutional mechanisms for the performance of land property titles’ market, which will provide conditions for the development of competitive relations in the agricultural economy.