Aside from the introduction and conclusion, this thesis comprises four core chapters: The first chapter investigates the presence of endogenous peer effects in the adoption of formal property rights. Using data from a unique land titling experiment held in an unplanned settlement in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I show a strong, positive impact of neighbour adoption on the household’s choice to purchase a land title. I also show that this relationship holds in a separate, identical experiment held a year later in a nearby community, as well as in administrative data for approximately 45,000 land parcels in the same city. I also discuss possible channels, including the possibility of complementarities in the reduction in expropriation risk. The second chapter examines the relationship between ethnic heterogeneity and the demand for formal land tenure. Using a unique census of two highly fractionalised settle- ments in Dar es Salaam, I show that households located near coethnics are significantly less likely to purchase a limited form of land tenure recently offered by the government. I attempt to address one of the chief concerns, endogenous sorting of households, by con- ditioning on a households choice of neighbors upon arrival in the neighborhood. These results suggest that close-knit ethnic groups may be less likely to accept state-provided goods if they can generate reasonable substitutes. The third chapter is a short chapter which presents results from a recent policy experi- ment in Tanzania where formal land titles were provided to informal settlers at randomised prices. Land owners were also randomly assigned conditional discounts, which could only be applied if a woman was designated as owner or co-owner of the land in question. Results show that conditionality has no adverse effects on demand for land titles, yet drastically increases the probability a woman is included. We discuss the implications of these results for the expected bargaining power impacts of the intervention. The final chapter investigates birth order effects on both anthropometric and edu- cation outcomes in a longitudinal survey of children from the Philippines. Birth order effects are present early in life for both outcomes, but attenuate as children approach adulthood. There is also evidence for nonlinear birth order effects, with both firstborn and lastborn children holding an advantage over middleborn children. These results are at odds with prevalent theories of birth order which predict lasting and monotonic differences in outcomes across children.

Le fonds de commerce est un bien affecté par nature à l’activité de l’entreprise. Il se distingue, en tant qu’objet de réglementations, du concept économique d'entreprise ou de concepts fonctionnels comme l'établissement ou la branche d'activité. Le constat d'affectation à l'activité, qui découle de la pratique commerciale, se vérifie en droit fiscal, tant au niveau de la nature du fonds, une universalité, que dans sa dimension patrimoniale.Le fonds de commerce emprunte à la théorie de l’universalité de fait ses caractéristiques propres, dont la principale réside dans la dualité d’approches de ses composants, isolément ou comme un tout. Pour le droit fiscal, le fonds de commerce apparaît comme une enveloppe souple, dans laquelle sont agencés divers éléments réunis autour de la clientèle, et susceptibles de varier d’un fonds à l’autre. L’approche globale du fonds permet de caractériser l’ensemble, lorsque le droit fiscal veut opérer une imposition synthétique, que ce soit pour exonérer une transmission d'universalité en matière de TVA, pour appliquer le tarif des droits de mutation à une cession de fonds de commerce ou une convention de successeur ou pour opérer une imposition uniforme dans le cadre de dispositifs de faveur. À l’inverse, l’approche ut singuli de l’universalité permet la mise en œuvre de procédés d’imposition plus complexes et plus affinés, ayant vocation à ne s’appliquer qu’à certains éléments. Elle permet d’atteindre spécifiquement certains éléments du fonds, soumis à un régime fiscal particulier au regard de certains impôts ou d’appliquer certains mécanismes fiscaux, comme l’amortissement, qui requièrent de dissocier un élément du fonds.Le fonds de commerce résulte de l’exploitation et constitue une valeur patrimoniale dont le droit fiscal tire les conséquences, par son positionnement à l’actif du bilan de l’entreprise. L’inscription à l’actif, conjuguée à l’affectation à l’activité de l’entreprise, est le point de conflit entre les approches juridique et économique de la propriété. Si l’approche juridique correspond à la conception civile traditionnelle du droit de propriété, elle ne recouvre que partiellement et de manière contingente, l’approche économique qui fait prévaloir la notion de contrôle sur un bien ou un droit. Cette approche économique conduit à inscrire au bilan de simples droits d’usage (marques ou brevets utilisés en vertu d’une concession de licence) et introduit une confusion sur la nature des droits détenus par le propriétaire du fonds. La même coexistence des approches juridique et économique est observée dans les contentieux relatifs au fonds de commerce entre les deux ordres de juridiction. / Goodwill is an asset that is naturally assigned to the activity of the enterprise. It is distinguished, as an object of regulations, from the economic concept of business or from functional concepts such as establishment or branch of activity. The assignment to the activity, which stems from commercial practice, is verified in tax law, both in terms of the nature of the business, a universality, and in terms of its patrimonial dimension.Goodwill borrows from the theory of universality de facto its own characteristics, the main one of which resides in the duality of approaches of its components, in isolation or as a whole. For tax law, goodwill appears as a flexible item, in which are arranged various elements gathered around the clientele, and may vary from one business to another. The overall approach of the business makes it possible to characterize the whole, when tax law wants to impose a synthetic taxation, whether to exempt a transfer of universality from VAT, to apply the tariff of transfer duties to a transfer of goodwill or a successor agreement, or to assess a uniform charge under concession arrangements. Conversely, the ut singuli approach to universality allows the implementation of more complex and refined taxation processes, which are intended to apply only to certain items. It allows for the specific attainment of certain items of the goodwill, which are subject to a particular tax regime with respect to certain taxes or to apply certain fiscal mechanisms, such as amortization, which require the separation of an element from the goodwill.Goodwill results from the exploitation and constitutes a patrimonial value of which tax law draws consequences, by its positioning in the assets of the balance sheet of the company. Capitalization, combined with the allocation to the business, is the point of conflict between legal and economic approaches to ownership. If the legal approach corresponds to the traditional civil law concept of the right to property, it only partially and contingently covers the economic approach which makes the notion of control over a property or a right prevail. This economic approach leads to the recording of simple rights of use (trademarks or patents used under a licensing agreement) and confuses the nature of the rights held by the owner of the business. The same coexistence of legal and economic approaches is observed in litigations relating to goodwill between both branches of tax jurisdiction of the French court system.