Tenure security and subsistence needs influence the choice between unexploited topsoil and
unspent money (i.e., savings) as the mode of transfer. Using a unique household-level dataset from
Bangladesh, which contains data on cropping-intensity and savings spent on education, we detect
that rural agricultural households with secured tenure have lower cropping-intensity and higher
educational expenditure. Furthermore, tenure security and poverty have opposite, but not
offsetting, effects. Households prefer higher educational expenditure to lower cropping-intensity
as the mode of transfer. Thus, increased public expenditure may lower the pressure on land and
soil resources, by lowering private educational expenditure.