Papers, Presentations, and Recorded Sessions

  • The full program, including all papers and presentations, is available here. 
  • Recordings of select sessions can be found under the Recorded Sessions tab.  

The 2026 World Bank Land and Property Research Conference brought together researchers and practitioners from April 29 to May 1 at World Bank Headquarters in Washington, DC.

The conference explored the latest research on land governance, land markets, and institutions, with a focus on economic growth, structural transformation, job creation and poverty reduction. Sessions also covered property taxation, urban development, equity and rights, land-related conflict, and land policy's role in resilience. A cross-cutting theme was the opportunity offered by new technologies: advances in the digitalization of land registration and procedures, data management, interoperability, and the integration of satellite data, administrative data, and AI in analysis.

Two special plenaries complemented these sessions. A keynote by Daron Acemoglu, 2024 Nobel Laureate in Economics, addressed land, labor, and economic development. The second plenary focused on the World Bank's B-READY land indicators and how they can help identify policy priorities.

Many of the sessions from this year's Land and Property Research Conference were livestreamed and recorded. Click on the "Recording" link of any of the sessions below to access the recording. Click on the title of any session for additional details. For the full agenda, visit ConfTool. 

Date/Time Title
April 29
8:30am - 10:30am Property Rights, Technology, and Mortgage Markets  (Recording)
11:00am - 1:00pm Inheritance and Intergenerational Wealth (Recording)
2:00pm - 3:30pm Plenary: Land indicators in the World Bank's B-READY (Recording)
4:00pm - 6:00pm Housing Access, Affordability, and Regulation (Recording)
April 30
8:30am - 10:30am Agricultural Productivity and Forest Conservation (Recording)
11:00am - 1:00pm Land Tenure, Rental Markets, and Allocative Efficiency (Recording)
2:00pm - 3:30pm Plenary (Nobel Laureate Daron Acemoglu): Land, Labor, and Economic Development (Recording)
4:00pm - 6:00pm Land Reform and Transferability of Rights (Recording)
May 1
8:30am - 10:30am Urban Land Regulation, Housing Policy, and Spatial Planning (Recording)
11:00am - 1:00pm Land Rights, Climate Adaptation, and Environmental Regulation (Recording)
2:00pm - 4:00pm Land Markets, Migration, and Structural Change (Recording)