IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/deveco/v157y2022ics0304387822000281.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Land property rights and rural enterprise growth: Evidence from land titling reform in China

Author

Listed:
  • Bu, Di
  • Liao, Yin

Abstract

We exploit a large-scale land titling reform in China that clearly entitles rural households to land rights by issuing uniform land use certificates and study how this impacted entrepreneurship in rural areas. We find that the reform significantly increases business creation in rural areas without decreasing the quality of new entrants or incumbent businesses. It also spurs entrepreneurship among professional and large farmers and attracts more urban residents to start new businesses in rural areas. Additional analysis provides evidence that increased land and labor availability and productivity, and improved social trust may serve as the mechanisms underlying these effects. Altogether, these results reveal that well-defined land property rights have enabled more enterprise growth in rural areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Bu, Di & Liao, Yin, 2022. "Land property rights and rural enterprise growth: Evidence from land titling reform in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:deveco:v:157:y:2022:i:c:s0304387822000281
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2022.102853
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387822000281
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2022.102853?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. Démurger, Sylvie & Xu, Hui, 2011. "Return Migrants: The Rise of New Entrepreneurs in Rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 1847-1861.
    2. Johan Hombert & Antoinette Schoar & David Sraer & David Thesmar, 2020. "Can Unemployment Insurance Spur Entrepreneurial Activity? Evidence from France," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(3), pages 1247-1285, June.
    3. Thomas Vendryes, 2010. "Land Rights in Rural China since 1978. Reforms, Successes, and Shortcomings," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) hal-00813066, HAL.
    4. Deininger, Klaus & Jin, Songqing, 2009. "Securing property rights in transition: Lessons from implementation of China's rural land contracting law," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(1-2), pages 22-38, May.
    5. Saxenian, AnnaLee, 1991. "The origins and dynamics of production networks in Silicon Valley," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 423-437, October.
    6. Han, Bing & Han, Lu & Zhou, Zhengyi, 2020. "Housing Market and Entrepreneurship: Micro Evidence from China," MPRA Paper 102597, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 17 Aug 2020.
    7. Galiani, Sebastian & Schargrodsky, Ernesto, 2010. "Property rights for the poor: Effects of land titling," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(9-10), pages 700-729, October.
    8. Evans, David S & Jovanovic, Boyan, 1989. "An Estimated Model of Entrepreneurial Choice under Liquidity Constraints," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(4), pages 808-827, August.
    9. Blanchflower, David G & Oswald, Andrew J, 1998. "What Makes an Entrepreneur?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(1), pages 26-60, January.
    10. Deininger, Klaus & Jin, Songqing & Xia, Fang & Huang, Jikun, 2014. "Moving Off the Farm: Land Institutions to Facilitate Structural Transformation and Agricultural Productivity Growth in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 505-520.
    11. Martin C. Schmalz & David A. Sraer & David Thesmar, 2017. "Housing Collateral and Entrepreneurship," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(1), pages 99-132, February.
    12. Wang, Hui & Riedinger, Jeffrey & Jin, Songqing, 2015. "Land documents, tenure security and land rental development: Panel evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 220-235.
    13. Kihlstrom, Richard E & Laffont, Jean-Jacques, 1979. "A General Equilibrium Entrepreneurial Theory of Firm Formation Based on Risk Aversion," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(4), pages 719-748, August.
    14. Herkenhoff, Kyle & Phillips, Gordon M. & Cohen-Cole, Ethan, 2021. "The impact of consumer credit access on self-employment and entrepreneurship," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(1), pages 345-371.
    15. Field, Erica Marie, 2005. "Property Rights and Investment in Urban Slums," Scholarly Articles 3634150, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    16. Erica Field, 2007. "Entitled to Work: Urban Property Rights and Labor Supply in Peru," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(4), pages 1561-1602.
    17. Amalavoyal Chari & Elaine M Liu & Shing-Yi Wang & Yongxiang Wang, 2021. "Property Rights, Land Misallocation, and Agricultural Efficiency in China [Misallocation, Selection and Productivity: A Quantitative Analysis with Panel Data from China]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(4), pages 1831-1862.
    18. Jordan Chamberlin & Jacob Ricker-Gilbert, 2016. "Participation in Rural Land Rental Markets in Sub-Saharan Africa: Who Benefits and by How Much? Evidence from Malawi and Zambia," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 98(5), pages 1507-1528.
    19. Thomas Vendryes, 2010. "Land Rights in Rural China since 1978. Reforms, Successes, and Shortcomings," Post-Print hal-00813066, HAL.
    20. Timothy J. Besley & Konrad B. Burchardi & Maitreesh Ghatak, 2012. "Incentives and the De Soto Effect," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(1), pages 237-282.
    21. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James A. Robinson, 2001. "The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1369-1401, December.
    22. Alain de Janvry & Kyle Emerick & Marco Gonzalez-Navarro & Elisabeth Sadoulet, 2015. "Delinking Land Rights from Land Use: Certification and Migration in Mexico," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(10), pages 3125-3149, October.
    23. Chatterji, Aaron K. & Seamans, Robert C., 2012. "Entrepreneurial finance, credit cards, and race," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 182-195.
    24. Stefano Corradin & Alexander Popov, 2015. "House Prices, Home Equity Borrowing, and Entrepreneurship," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(8), pages 2399-2428.
    25. Tobias J. Moskowitz & Annette Vissing-Jørgensen, 2002. "The Returns to Entrepreneurial Investment: A Private Equity Premium Puzzle?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(4), pages 745-778, September.
    26. Thomas Vendryes, 2010. "Land Rights in Rural China since 1978. Reforms, Successes, and Shortcomings," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-00813066, HAL.
    27. Klaus Deininger & Daniel Ayalew Ali & Tekie Alemu, 2011. "Impacts of Land Certification on Tenure Security, Investment, and Land Market Participation: Evidence from Ethiopia," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 87(2), pages 312-334.
    28. Erica Field, 2005. "Property Rights and Investment in Urban Slums," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 3(2-3), pages 279-290, 04/05.
    29. Kevin Aretz & Murillo Campello & Maria‐Teresa Marchica, 2020. "Access to Collateral and the Democratization of Credit: France's Reform of the Napoleonic Security Code," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(1), pages 45-90, February.
    30. M.B. Neace, 1999. "Entrepreneurs in Emerging Economies: Creating Trust, Social Capital, and Civil Society," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 565(1), pages 148-161, September.
    31. Biliang Luo, 2018. "40-year reform of farmland institution in China: target, effort and the future," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 10(1), pages 16-35, February.
    32. Zandberg, Jonathan, 2021. "Family comes first: Reproductive health and the gender gap in entrepreneurship," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(3), pages 838-864.
    33. Shing-Yi Wang, 2012. "Credit Constraints, Job Mobility, and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from a Property Reform in China," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 94(2), pages 532-551, May.
    34. Besley, Timothy, 1995. "Property Rights and Investment Incentives: Theory and Evidence from Ghana," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(5), pages 903-937, October.
    35. Longyao Zhang & Wenli Cheng & Enjiang Cheng & Bi Wu, 2020. "Does land titling improve credit access? Quasi-experimental evidence from rural China," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(2), pages 227-241, January.
    36. Barton H. Hamilton, 2000. "Does Entrepreneurship Pay? An Empirical Analysis of the Returns to Self-Employment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(3), pages 604-631, June.
    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. Keming Huang & Fangzhou Xia, 2023. "Classification of Rural Relative Poverty Groups and Measurement of the Influence of Land Elements: A Questionnaire-Based Analysis of 23 Poor Counties in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-23, April.
    2. Ran Du & Qiyun Fang & Ke Liu, 2023. "Landscape Fire and Entrepreneurial Activity: An Empirical Study Based on Satellite Monitoring Data," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-22, July.
    3. Bowei Li & Yanjun Qian & Fanbin Kong, 2023. "Does Outsourcing Service Reduce the Excessive Use of Chemical Fertilizers in Rural China? The Moderating Effects of Farm Size and Plot Size," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-18, September.
    4. Liu, Xinyue & Wang, Xiaobing & Xu, Zhigang, 2023. "The polarization and constraints of scale farming in China under the impact of rising wages," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    5. Ping Yin & Linjie Zhou, 2023. "Place Identity, Social Capital, and Rural Homestay Entrepreneurship Performance: The Mediating Effect of Self-Efficacy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-14, August.
    6. Haolong Liu, 2022. "The Tripartite Evolutionary Game of Green Agro-Product Supply in an Agricultural Industrialization Consortium," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-19, September.
    7. Shiyi Chen & Wanlin Liu & Hong Song & Qing Zhang, 2024. "Government‐led e‐commerce expansion project and rural household income: Evidence and mechanisms," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(1), pages 150-174, January.
    8. Liu, Shouying & Ma, Sen & Yin, Lijuan & Zhu, Jiong, 2023. "Land titling, human capital misallocation, and agricultural productivity in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    9. Xinmin Liu & Yue Zheng & Wencheng Yu, 2023. "The Nonlinear Relationship between Intellectual Property Protection and Farmers’ Entrepreneurship: An Empirical Analysis Based on CHFS Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-16, March.
    10. Hu, Xinyan & Chen, Zhuo & Chen, Xiangpo & Liu, Ziyu, 2023. "The political trust impacts of land titling in China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    11. Bi, Guohua & Yang, Qingyuan, 2023. "The spatial production of rural settlements as rural homestays in the context of rural revitalization: Evidence from a rural tourism experiment in a Chinese village," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    12. Song, Malin & Xie, Qianjiao & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Yao, Xin, 2023. "Economic growth and security from the perspective of natural resource assets," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    13. Dongsheng Zhang & Ming Yang & Ziyou Wang, 2022. "Resources or Capital?—The Quality Improvement Mechanism of Precision Poverty Alleviation by Land Elements," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-24, October.
    14. Yuan Yi & Kaifeng Duan & Fang He & Yuxuan Si, 2024. "The Effects and Mechanisms of the Rural Homestead System on the Imbalance of Rural Human–Land Relationships: Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-19, January.
    15. Jinglin Jiang & Hongyu Xiang, 2024. "Leadership and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from a Chinese Household Survey," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 14(1), pages 1-2.
    16. Gong, Maogang & Zhong, Yanan & Zhang, Yun & Elahi, Ehsan & Yang, Yuanxi, 2023. "Have the new round of agricultural land system reform improved farmers' agricultural inputs in China?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(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. Kerr, Sari Pekkala & Kerr, William R. & Nanda, Ramana, 2022. "House prices, home equity and entrepreneurship: Evidence from U.S. census micro data," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 103-119.
    2. Ayalew, Hailemariam & Admasu, Yeshwas & Chamberlin, Jordan, 2021. "Is land certification pro-poor? Evidence from Ethiopia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    3. Besley, Timothy & Ghatak, Maitreesh, 2010. "Property Rights and Economic Development," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4525-4595, Elsevier.
    4. Jensen, Thais Laerkholm & Leth-Petersen, Søren & Nanda, Ramana, 2022. "Financing constraints, home equity and selection into entrepreneurship," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 318-337.
    5. Ross Levine & Yona Rubinstein, 2018. "Selection into Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment," NBER Working Papers 25350, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Bracke, Philippe & Hilber, Christian A.L. & Silva, Olmo, 2018. "Mortgage debt and entrepreneurship," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 52-66.
    7. Aymeric Bellon & J. Anthony Cookson & Erik P. Gilje & Rawley Z. Heimer, 2020. "Personal Wealth and Self-Employment," NBER Working Papers 27452, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Sari Pekkala Kerr & William R. Kerr & Ramana Nanda, 2015. "House Money and Entrepreneurship," Harvard Business School Working Papers 15-069, Harvard Business School.
    9. Gao, Xuwen & Shi, Xinjie & Fang, Shile, 2021. "Property rights and misallocation: Evidence from land certification in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    10. Jie Chen & Mingzhi Hu, 2019. "What types of homeowners are more likely to be entrepreneurs? The evidence from China," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 633-649, March.
    11. A. Patrick Behrer & Edward L. Glaeser & Giacomo A. M. Ponzetto & Andrei Shleifer, 2021. "Securing Property Rights," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(4), pages 1157-1192.
    12. Islam, Md. Rabiul & Madsen, Jakob B. & Raschky, Paul A., 2015. "Gold and silver mining in the 16th and 17th centuries, land titles and agricultural productivity," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 150-166.
    13. Johan Hombert & Antoinette Schoar & David Sraer & David Thesmar, 2020. "Can Unemployment Insurance Spur Entrepreneurial Activity? Evidence from France," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(3), pages 1247-1285, June.
    14. Wang, Shing-Yi, 2014. "Property rights and intra-household bargaining," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 192-201.
    15. Deininger, Klaus & Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Alemu, Tekie, 2008. "Impacts of land certification on tenure security, investment, and land markets : evidence from Ethiopia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4764, The World Bank.
    16. beg, Sabrin, 2019. "Computerization and Development: Formalizing Property Rights and its Impact on Land and Labor Allocation," MPRA Paper 96110, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Schoar, Antoinette & Thesmar, David & Sraer, David & Hombert, Johan, 2014. "Can Unemployment Insurance Spur Entrepreneurial Activity?," CEPR Discussion Papers 10294, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Ann-Sofie Isaksson, 2015. "Unequal Property Rights: A Study of Land Right Inequalities in Rwanda," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 60-83, March.
    19. Benjamin Marx & Thomas Stoker & Tavneet Suri, 2013. "The Economics of Slums in the Developing World," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(4), pages 187-210, Fall.
    20. Fan, Gang-Zhi & Li, Han & Li, Jiangyi & Zhang, Jian, 2022. "Housing property rights, collateral, and entrepreneurship: Evidence from China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Land property rights; Enterprise; Collateral; Labor mobility; Social trust;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:deveco:v:157:y:2022:i:c:s0304387822000281. 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/devec .

    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.