Rural Labor Migration and Households' Land Rental Behavior: Evidence from China

• Published in: China & world economy Vol. 26; no. 1; pp. 66 - 85
• Main Authors: Ji, Xianqing, Qian, Zhonghao, Zhang, Linxiu, Zhang, Tonglong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing 中国社会科学院世界经济与政治研究所 01.01.2018; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Agricultural land; Agricultural production; agricultural productivity; Farmers; Households; households' land rental behavior; Housework; J21; J22; Labor migration; Migrants; Migration; P25; Productivity; Q13; Q15; Renting; Rural communities; rural labor migration; rural–urban China; Welfare services
• ISSN: 1671-2234; 1749-124X
• DOI: 10.1111/cwe.12229

There has been growing debate about whether the changing demographic composition due to rural labor migration could potentially threaten China's agricultural productivity. The Chinese Government is promoting the “three rights separation system” to consolidate agricultural land through the land rental market with the explicit intention of fostering new agricultural management subjects and improving agricultural productivity. The present paper estimates the effect of rural labor migration on households' participation in land renting in and renting out activities based on a unique dataset from three rounds of nationally representative surveys. Our results indicate that rural labor migration has a significant negative effect on households renting in land and has a positive effect on households renting out land in rural China. Therefore, the government should adopt targeted policies to effectively encourage farmers with higher agricultural capacity to rent in land to alleviate the negative effect of rural migration on households renting in land. Supporting policies should guarantee that rural migrants enjoy the same welfare services as urban residents.