Matthew Ribar wins the APCG Best Graduate Student Paper Award

Matthew Ribar (Washington University) has been awarded the Best Graduate Student Paper Award for his outstanding article, "Land, Power, and Property Rights: The Political Economy of Land Titling in West Africa."

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The award committee—Matthias Kroenke, Alex Beresford, Amma Wilke, and Catherine Musuva—noted: “The empirical rigour of the article is exceptional, drawing together household observations and an innovative geospatial measure of land values and agricultural returns. From this, Ribar makes a number of well-grounded and compelling contributions to how we understand the importance of state land regimes and the role of traditional authorities with regard to land titles. In particular, Ribar shifts our focus away from the state by demonstrating how household demand influences the uptake of land titles. However, they also offer unique and significant insights into how this demand is, in turn, mediated by national land regimes and customary authorities, particularly where the latter ‘capture’ the process. Taken together, Ribar offers an outstanding contribution to the debates about property rights and land that have long been central to African Studies, while also illuminating the ways in which future research in this area can be enriched.”

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Congratuation Matthew!