We analyze to what extent climate conditions affect the prevalence of sharecropping as a form of traditional land tenure. We investigate how sharecropping tenure is related to climate risk and how it interacts with fertilizer use and livestock ownership that both influence production risk. We first develop a stylized theoretical model to illustrate the role of climate for land tenure and production. Our empirical analysis is based on more than 9000 households with considerable heterogeneity in climate conditions across several African countries. We find that farmers in areas with low precipitation are more likely to be sharecroppers. We further find evidence for risk management interaction effects as sharecropping farmers are less likely to own livestock and more likely to use fertilizer. In economies where formal kinds of insurance are unavailable, sharecropping thus functions as a form of insurance and reduces the need for potentially costly risk management strategies.

中文翻译：

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土地使用权、气候和风险管理

我们分析了气候条件在多大程度上影响了作为一种传统土地保有权形式的佃农的盛行。我们调查了佃农权属如何与气候风险相关，以及它如何与影响生产风险的肥料使用和牲畜所有权相互作用。我们首先开发了一个程式化的理论模型来说明气候对土地使用权和生产的作用。我们的实证分析基于多个非洲国家气候条件差异很大的 9000 多个家庭。我们发现降水量少地区的农民更有可能成为佃农。我们进一步发现了风险管理相互作用效应的证据，因为佃农不太可能拥有牲畜，而更有可能使用化肥。