Rural Land Rights Reform and Agro-Environmental Sustainability: Empirical Evidence from China

30 Pages Posted: 11 Jun 2018

See all articles by Yuting Xu

Yuting Xu

Nanjing University - School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences; Anhui Normal University - School of Territorial Resources and Tourism; Indiana University Bloomington - Department of Geography

Xianjin Huang

Nanjing University - School of Geography and Ocean Science

Helen X. H. Bao

Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge

Ju Xiang

Nanjing Agricultural University (NAU)

Taiyang Zhong

Nanjing University - School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences

Chen Zhigang

Nanjing University - School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences

Yan Zhou

Nanjing University - School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences

Date Written: May 2017

Abstract

The landscape of China’s rural land market has been changed by several significant land right reforms since 1970s. It is always of great interest to both the government and the public to gauge the effectiveness of these reforms. We address this question by investigating the impact of a recent land use right reform, namely, the ‘Three Rights Separation Policy’, on agro-environmental sustainability. By separating land management right from land contracted management right, this new reform is believed to be a powerful tool to encourage land transfer, optimize land resource allocation, and increase the economy of scale in agriculture sector. Using PSM-DID model applied to panel data for the years 2008 and 2014, Our study demonstrates that the new policy also increases the use of organic fertilizers by 48.641kg/mu in total, which is a very important step to ensure agro-environmental sustainability in China. The new policy is more effective in encouraging the application of organic fertilizer when the issuing of land certificates is enforced and administrative barriers in land right transfers are removed. The findings add values to the growing literature on rural land right reforms in China and may also has significant implications in developing countries with similar rural land tenure systems and underdeveloped land and labor markets.

Keywords: Three Rights Separation Policy, Land Tenure Reform, Sustainable Land Use, Households Behavior, Propensity Score Matching, Difference-in-Difference, Commercial Organic Fertilizer, China

JEL Classification: Q15

Suggested Citation

Xu, Yuting and Huang, Xianjin and Bao, Helen X. H. and Xiang, Ju and Zhong, Taiyang and Zhigang, Chen and Zhou, Yan, Rural Land Rights Reform and Agro-Environmental Sustainability: Empirical Evidence from China (May 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3170855 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3170855

Yuting Xu

Nanjing University - School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences ( email )

163 26 Xianlin Street
Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023
China

Anhui Normal University - School of Territorial Resources and Tourism ( email )

8 Anhui
Wuhu, 241000
China

Indiana University Bloomington - Department of Geography ( email )

Bloomington, IN
United States

Xianjin Huang (Contact Author)

Nanjing University - School of Geography and Ocean Science ( email )

Jiangsu, 210023
China

Helen X. H. Bao

Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge ( email )

19 Silver Street
Cambridge, CB3 9EP
United Kingdom

Ju Xiang

Nanjing Agricultural University (NAU) ( email )

weigang 1 hao
Nanjing, 210095
China

Taiyang Zhong

Nanjing University - School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences ( email )

163 26 Xianlin Street
Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023
China

Chen Zhigang

Nanjing University - School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences ( email )

163 26 Xianlin Street
Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023
China

Yan Zhou

Nanjing University - School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences

163 26 Xianlin Street
Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023
China

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
119
Abstract Views
932
Rank
422,437
PlumX Metrics