This talk explores informal institutions governing property relations in rural Afghanistan. Despite the fact that the state controls all land (both under the Taliban and historically), the vast majority of Afghans have customary legal titles. How has this formal-informal property nexus affected stability and conflict in Afghanistan? What are the implications for the new Taliban regime?

Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili is the Founding Director of the Center for Governance & Markets and Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Public & International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on formal and informal political institutions, political economy of development, decentralization and local governance and post-conflict reconstruction. Her diverse research methods include field experiments, public opinion surveys and ethnographic fieldwork. She also has experience with the United Nations Development Program and UNICEF. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Muhammad Yasir Khan is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics at the University of Pittsburgh. His research lies at the intersection of development economics, behavioral economics, and political economy. His publications include, "Data and Policy Decisions: Experimental Evidence from Pakistan", Journal of Development Economics (2020).  Khan’s PhD is from the University of California Berkeley's Haas School of Business. He has an MPA from Columbia University and he graduated from LUMS in 2007 with a BSc. (Hons.) in Economics.