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Effect of personality traits on smallholders’ land renting behavior: Theory and evidence from the North China Plain

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  • Qian, Chen
  • Li, Fan
  • Antonides, Gerrit
  • Heerink, Nico
  • Ma, Xianlei
  • Li, Xiande

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of smallholders’ personality traits on their land rental market decisions. We develop a conceptual framework and show that these internal factors could affect smallholders’ land rental market participation beyond institutional and socio-demographic factors. Our empirical analysis is based on a survey of 2119 rural households collected in the North China Plain. We find that smallholders with a higher level of openness are more active in participating in the farmland rental market. Moreover, internal locus of control plays a significant role in explaining smallholders’ land renting behavior. We further show that need for achievement mediates the link between internal locus of control and smallholder’s intention to rent land, indicating that fostering a higher level of internal locus of control—and subsequently achievement desire—could play an important role in promoting smallholders’ land-renting behavior. More generally, our results imply that taking rural smallholders’ personality traits into account in designing land rental policies may increase the effectiveness of policies aimed at promoting land rental market participation among smallholders and incubating crop farm scale enlargement in rural China.

Suggested Citation

  • Qian, Chen & Li, Fan & Antonides, Gerrit & Heerink, Nico & Ma, Xianlei & Li, Xiande, 2020. "Effect of personality traits on smallholders’ land renting behavior: Theory and evidence from the North China Plain," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:62:y:2020:i:c:s1043951x20301073
    DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2020.101510
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    4. Chen, Minjie & Heerink, Nico & Zhu, Xueqin & Feng, Shuyi, 2021. "Do Small Farm Sizes Imply Large Resource Misallocation? Evidence from Wheat-Maize Double Cropping Farms in the North China Plain," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315141, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    5. Liu, Yan & Heerink, Nico & Li, Fan & Shi, Xiaoping, 2022. "Do agricultural machinery services promote village farmland rental markets? Theory and evidence from a case study in the North China plain," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    6. Jiafeng Gu, 2024. "Neighborhood Does Matter: Farmers’ Local Social Interactions and Land Rental Behaviors in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-17, January.
    7. Xiang Li & Hyukku Lee, 2022. "An Analysis on the Determining Factors of Farmers’ Land-Scale Management: Empirical Analysis Based on the Micro-Perspective of Farmers in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-15, August.
    8. Ting Ye & Wenjian He & Zhiyong Liu, 2022. "Exploring the Influence of Land Titling on Farmland Transfer-Out Based on Land Parcel Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-18, February.
    9. Chen, Minjie & Heerink, Nico & Zhu, Xueqin & Feng, Shuyi, 2022. "Do small and equally distributed farm sizes imply large resource misallocation? Evidence from wheat-maize double-cropping in the North China Plain," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    10. Lehberger, Mira & Gruener, Sven, 2023. "(Why) Do farmers’ Big Five personality traits matter? – A systematic literature review," OSF Preprints jbx4p, Center for Open Science.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Land rental market; Personality traits; Locus of control; Causal mediation analysis; Rural China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets
    • Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment

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