Impact of land transfer on rural energy consumption: Evidence from China family panel studies data

Land transfer is an important reason for promoting the structural transformation of rural energy consumption and realizing rural energy security, and exploring the impact of land transfer on rural energy consumption has gradually become a focal point of discussion and concern in the academic community. This paper analyzes how land transfer affects rural energy consumption and its mechanism of action based on individual data obtained from the 2016, 2018, and 2020 China Family Panel Studies using fixed-effects and mediated-effects models. We find that land transfer out can significantly affect rural energy consumption and that land transfer out favors to the structural transformation of rural energy consumption, especially the shift to rural developmental energy consumption, while land transfer in is unfavorable regarding the structural transformation of rural energy consumption. A series of robustness and endogeneity tests reinforce this conclusion. At the same time, the effect of land transfer on the structural transformation of rural energy consumption is heterogeneous, depending on the natural geographical conditions, the level of regional economic development, and health status. In addition, changes in household capital and livelihoods are mediating mechanisms through which land transfer affects rural energy consumption. In this regard, the implementation of energy consumption price subsidies, the formulation of differentiated energy consumption policies and the establishment of a long-term income-generating mechanism for land transfer are important policy paths for promoting the structural transformation of rural energy consumption and building a rural energy security system.