IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/forpol/v101y2019icp62-69.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does rural labor outward migration reduce household forest investment? The experience of Jiangxi, China

Author

Listed:
  • Xie, Fangting
  • Zhu, Shubin
  • Cao, Mengtian
  • Kang, Xiaolan
  • Du, Juan

Abstract

This study examines the impact of rural labor outward migration, a prominent phenomenon in China, on household forest management using the appropriate economic theory and survey data of 500 households over seven years (2011–2017) in Jiangxi. We measured households' investment in forest management in terms of labor use and cash outlay. Considering the potential endogeneity of labor migration and periodicity of forestry, we built our Tobit models using the instrumental variable method, which was easily accommodated with our panel data. Our results indicated that households were more cautious on cash outlay in forest management, compared with their labor use, and that migration had an overall negative effect on both labor use and cash outlay. Further, migration of the household head and the number of migrants negatively influenced forest investment. The off-farm income positively affected labor use in forestry, while it negatively affected cash outlay. In addition, households with more labor, more forestland, and more forestry income invested more in forest management. Village factors, such as a larger population and better transportation, promoted households' investment in forest management. Our analysis provides important insights for policymakers to formulate and implement more pertinent policies to support rural forest management.

Suggested Citation

  • Xie, Fangting & Zhu, Shubin & Cao, Mengtian & Kang, Xiaolan & Du, Juan, 2019. "Does rural labor outward migration reduce household forest investment? The experience of Jiangxi, China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 62-69.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:forpol:v:101:y:2019:i:c:p:62-69
    DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2019.01.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389934119300371
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.forpol.2019.01.010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Taylor, J Edward & Rozelle, Scott & de Brauw, Alan, 2003. "Migration and Incomes in Source Communities: A New Economics of Migration Perspective from China," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 52(1), pages 75-101, October.
    2. Rahut, Dil Bahadur & Ali, Akhter & Behera, Bhagirath, 2015. "Household participation and effects of community forest management on income and poverty levels: Empirical evidence from Bhutan," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 20-29.
    3. Dennis Gain & Tsunemi Watanabe, 2017. "Expert Evaluation of Subsidies for the Management of Fragmented Private Forest in Regards to National Biodiversity Goals—The Case of Kochi Prefecture, Japan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-15, April.
    4. Stark, Oded & Bloom, David E, 1985. "The New Economics of Labor Migration," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(2), pages 173-178, May.
    5. Nayu Nuringdati Widianingsih & Ida Theilade & Mariève Pouliot, 2016. "Contribution of Forest Restoration to Rural Livelihoods and Household Income in Indonesia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-22, August.
    6. Yi Che, 2016. "Off-farm employments and land rental behavior: evidence from rural China," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 8(1), pages 37-54, February.
    7. Vera Chiodi & Esteban Jaimovich & Gabriel Montes-Rojas, 2009. "Migration and capital accumulation: Evidence from rural Mexico," Working Papers halshs-00575022, HAL.
    8. McDonald, John F & Moffitt, Robert A, 1980. "The Uses of Tobit Analysis," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 62(2), pages 318-321, May.
    9. Vera Chiodi & Esteban Jaimovich & Gabriel Montes-Rojas, 2012. "Migration, Remittances and Capital Accumulation: Evidence from Rural Mexico," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(8), pages 1139-1155, February.
    10. Robinson, Elizabeth J.Z. & Lokina, Razack B., 2011. "A spatial-temporal analysis of the impact of access restrictions on forest landscapes and household welfare in Tanzania," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 79-85, January.
    11. Adams, Richard H. & Cuecuecha, Alfredo, 2013. "The Impact of Remittances on Investment and Poverty in Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 24-40.
    12. Xie, Yi & Gong, Peichen & Han, Xiao & Wen, Yali, 2014. "The effect of collective forestland tenure reform in China: Does land parcelization reduce forest management intensity?," Journal of Forest Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 126-140.
    13. Fisher, Monica, 2004. "Household welfare and forest dependence in Southern Malawi," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 135-154, May.
    14. Lihua Li & Chenggang Wang & Eduardo Segarra & Zhibiao Nan, 2013. "Migration, remittances, and agricultural productivity in small farming systems in Northwest China," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 5(1), pages 5-23, January.
    15. Zhu, Zhen & Xu, Zhigang & Shen, Yueqin & Huang, Chenming & Zhang, Yaoqi, 2019. "How off-farm work drives the intensity of rural households' investment in forest management: The case from Zhejiang, China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 30-43.
    16. Shackleton, Charlie M. & Shackleton, Sheona E. & Buiten, Erik & Bird, Neil, 2007. "The importance of dry woodlands and forests in rural livelihoods and poverty alleviation in South Africa," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(5), pages 558-577, January.
    17. Juha Siikamäki & Yonjie Ji & Jintao Xu, 2015. "Post-reform Forestland Markets in China," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 91(2), pages 211-234.
    18. Ping Qin & Jintao Xu, 2013. "Forest land rights, tenure types, and farmers' investment incentives in China," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 5(1), pages 154-170, January.
    19. Hidemichi Fujii & Masayuki Sato & Shunsuke Managi, 2017. "Decomposition Analysis of Forest Ecosystem Services Values," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-14, April.
    20. Xie, Yi & Wen, Yali & Zhang, Yaoqi & Li, Xiaoyong, 2013. "Impact of property rights reform on household forest management investment: An empirical study of southern China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 73-78.
    21. Liu, Can & Wang, Sen & Liu, Hao & Zhu, Wenqing, 2019. "Reprint of: Why did the 1980s' reform of collective forestland tenure in southern China fail?," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 8-18.
    22. Vera Chiodi & Vera Chiodi, 2012. "Migration and capital accumulation: Evidence from rural Mexico," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-01063694, HAL.
    23. Chakra P. Acharya & Roberto Leon-Gonzalez, 2014. "How do Migration and Remittances Affect Human Capital Investment? The Effects of Relaxing Information and Liquidity Constraints," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(3), pages 444-460, March.
    24. Xie, Lunyu & Berck, Peter & Xu, Jintao, 2016. "The effect on forestation of the collective forest tenure reform in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 116-129.
    25. de Brauw, Alan & Rozelle, Scott, 2008. "Migration and household investment in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 320-335, June.
    26. J. Edward Taylor & Scott Rozelle & Alan deBrauw, 1999. "Migration, Remittances, and Agricultural Productivity in China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 287-291, May.
    27. Liu, Ping & Yin, Runsheng & Li, Hua, 2016. "China's forest tenure reform and institutional change at a crossroads," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 92-98.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jian Wei & Hui Xiao & Hao Liu & Xiaotao Huang & Dahong Zhang, 2022. "Does the Collective Forestland Tenure Reform Promote Rural Households’ Forestry Inputs? Based on Dual Perspectives of Rural Households’ Divergence and Inter-Generational Differences," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-23, October.
    2. Xu, Dingde & Deng, Xin & Huang, Kai & Liu, Yi & Yong, Zhuolin & Liu, Shaoquan, 2019. "Relationships between labor migration and cropland abandonment in rural China from the perspective of village types," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    3. Qianqian Chen & Ruifa Hu & Yiduo Sun & Chao Zhang, 2020. "How Does Rural–Urban Migration Experience Affect Arable Land Use? Evidence from 2293 Farmers in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-17, October.
    4. Hui Xiao & Xian Liang & Shu Xing & Longjunjiang Huang & Fangting Xie, 2023. "Does Land Lease Affect the Multidimensional Poverty Alleviation? The Evidence from Jiangxi, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-20, April.
    5. Xiaowo Wu & Jiangwei Tu & Boru Liu & Xi Zhou & Yanxiong Wu, 2022. "Credit Risk Evaluation of Forest Farmers under Internet Crowdfunding Mode: The Case of China’s Collective Forest Regions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-17, May.
    6. Yiwen, Zhang & Kant, Shashi & Dong, Jiayun & Liu, Jinlong, 2020. "How communities restructured forest tenure throughout the top-down devolution reform: Using the case of Fujian, China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    7. Duan, Wei & Shen, Jinyu & Hogarth, Nicholas J. & Chen, Qian, 2021. "Risk preferences significantly affect household investment in timber forestry: Empirical evidence from Fujian, China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhu, Zhen & Xu, Zhigang & Shen, Yueqin & Huang, Chenming & Zhang, Yaoqi, 2019. "How off-farm work drives the intensity of rural households' investment in forest management: The case from Zhejiang, China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 30-43.
    2. Marcus H. Böhme, 2015. "Does migration raise agricultural investment? An empirical analysis for rural Mexico," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 46(2), pages 211-225, March.
    3. Ruixin Zhang & Lei Luo & Yuying Liu & Xinhong Fu, 2022. "Impact of Labor Migration on Chemical Fertilizer Application of Citrus Growers: Empirical Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-14, June.
    4. Ubaid Ali & Mazhar Mughal & Lionel de Boisdeffre, 2023. "Migrant remittances, agriculture investment and cropping patterns," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(3), pages 899-920, September.
    5. Xinjie Shi, 2022. "Moving out but not for the better: Health consequences of interprovincial rural‐urban migration in China," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 555-573, April.
    6. Yang, Jin & Wan, Qian & Bi, Wu, 2020. "Off-farm employment and grain production change: New evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    7. Piras, Simone & Vittuari, Matteo & Möllers, Judith & Herzfeld, Thomas, 2018. "Remittance inflow and smallholder farming practices. The case of Moldova," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 654-665.
    8. Hong, Yan-Zhen & Chang, Hung-Hao & Dai, Yong-Wu, 2018. "Is deregulation of forest land use rights transactions associated with economic well-being and labor allocation of farm households? Empirical evidence in China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 694-701.
    9. Su, Baozhong & Li, Yuheng & Li, Lequn & Wang, Yue, 2018. "How does nonfarm employment stability influence farmers' farmland transfer decisions? Implications for China’s land use policy," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 66-72.
    10. Démurger, Sylvie & Xu, Hui, 2011. "Return Migrants: The Rise of New Entrepreneurs in Rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 1847-1861.
    11. Juna Miluka & Gero Carletto & Benjamin Davis & Alberto Zezza, 2010. "The Vanishing Farms? The Impact of International Migration on Albanian Family Farming," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(1), pages 140-161.
    12. Nguyen, Duc Loc & Grote, Ulrike & Nguyen, Trung Thanh, 2019. "Migration, crop production and non-farm labor diversification in rural Vietnam," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 175-187.
    13. Hua Lu & Hualin Xie & Qianru Chen & Jinfa Jiang, 2018. "Impact of Agricultural Labor Transfer and Structural Adjustment on Chemical Application: Comparison of Past Developments in the Ecological Civilization Pilot Zones of China and Their Future Implicatio," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-14, June.
    14. Han Zhang & Jari Kuuluvainen & Youliang Ning & Wenmei Liao & Can Liu, 2017. "Institutional Regime, Off-Farm Employment, and the Interaction Effect: What are the Determinants of Households’ Forestland Transfer in China?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-15, October.
    15. Zhang Yiwen & Shashi Kant & Hexing Long, 2020. "Collective Action Dilemma after China’s Forest Tenure Reform: Operationalizing Forest Devolution in a Rapidly Changing Society," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-18, February.
    16. Yang Ren & Jari Kuuluvainen & Anne Toppinen & Shunbo Yao & Sami Berghäll & Heimo Karppinen & Caixia Xue & Liu Yang, 2018. "The Effect of China’s New Circular Collective Forest Tenure Reform on Household Non-Timber Forest Product Production in Natural Forest Protection Project Regions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-17, April.
    17. Furqan Sikandar & Vasilii Erokhin & Hongshu Wang & Shafiqur Rehman & Anna Ivolga, 2021. "The Impact of Foreign Capital Inflows on Agriculture Development and Poverty Reduction: Panel Data Analysis for Developing Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-22, March.
    18. Krul, Kees & Ho, Peter & Yang, Xiuyun, 2020. "Incentivizing household forest management in China's forest reform: Limitations to rights-based approaches in Southwest China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    19. Yiwen, Zhang & Kant, Shashi & Dong, Jiayun & Liu, Jinlong, 2020. "How communities restructured forest tenure throughout the top-down devolution reform: Using the case of Fujian, China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    20. Zhao, Sudan & Jiang, Yongmu, 2022. "Heterogeneous effects of rural–urban migration and migrant earnings on land efficiency: Empirical evidence from China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:forpol:v:101:y:2019:i:c:p:62-69. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/forpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.