Land Use Policy 30 (2013) 652–664 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Land Use Policy jou rn al h om epa ge: www.elsevier.com/locate/landusepol Indicator scarcity on cadastre and land registration in cross-country information sources Karin Haldrup ∗ , Erik Stubkjær Aalborg University, Denmark a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 5 November 2011 Received in revised form 25 April 2012 Accepted 4 May 2012 Keywords: Cadastre Land registration Monitoring Indicator design a b s t r a c t A review of cross-country reporting on cadastre and land registration systems summarized the state- of-the-art and found shortcomings in availability of indicators suited for qualitative and quantitative comparison purposes. Methodological issues concerning the specification of indicators and development of monitoring systems were addressed, as well as the current scarcity of global monitoring data in this field. The paper suggests that progress in monitoring depends on establishing a conceptual model as a basis for design of appropriate indicators featuring the characteristics of cadastres and land registration systems combined with upgraded statistics reporting on property data. It was suggested that the domain calls for design and production of composite indices corresponding with the complexity of the domain. It is proposed that monitoring in the area of cadastre and land registration be advanced by pursuing different, complementary strategies with a differentiated approach to monitoring in mature and emerging systems respectively. Finally, leading monitoring agents of land administration and registration were identified with a discussion of their prospective future role in monitoring. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction Overview Change agents monitor their domain of concern to support improvements. The request for cross-country monitoring of cadas- tre and land registration arose mainly for two different reasons: the interest of development agencies to transform experience into purposeful projects, and the need of involved national agencies to establish their performance relative to some norm of best practice. Moreover, cross-country studies of land related issues are part of an increased interest in understanding the character of property rights protection and the central role of property institutions in development. In order to achieve and enforce property rights, public goods in terms of e.g. maps and land registers must be available (cf. Hayek, 1982; vol. 3. p. 44). However, the optimal design and implementa- tion of cadastre and land registration systems is still an open issue whether in respect to underlying legal framework, organization or technical standards. Comparative studies and monitoring systems are seen here as a means to better understanding development options in context. ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +45 9940 2465. E-mail address: knh@plan.aau.dk (K. Haldrup). The article provides a review of cross-country information sources on cadastre and land registration, identifies some converg- ing trends of comparative studies, and also a scarcity of monitoring data within the domain of land administration, and concludes by discussing options for further development. The qualities of the reviewed sources constitute at the same time limitations. The inventory found that cross-country informa- tion on cadastre and land registration systems is rich and varied, but fractional, uneven, and lacking depth on special issues. Monitoring challenges span from depicting the status of for- mal land registration in largely informal environments to profiling mature systems of cadastre and land registration. Monitoring could be expected to be straightforward in the case of mature systems, since data can be assumed to exist. However, as we shall see developed in the following, monitoring entails difficulties irre- spective of the status of cadastral systems, albeit of different kinds. The paper points to the lack of a conceptual model of cadastre and land registration systems as a basis for design of universal mon- itoring systems, identifies recent modeling efforts, and suggests that the complex field of property rights protection, cadastre and land registration calls for monitoring systems based on composite indices. Finally, strategies are suggested on designing differentiated monitoring systems suited for mature and emerging systems, respectively, by segmenting countries and monitoring efforts according to dynamic country rankings established by means of 0264-8377/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2012.05.005