IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/lauspo/v99y2020ics0264837719319283.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do land renting-in and its marketization increase labor input in agriculture? Evidence from rural China

Author

Listed:
  • Tongwei, Qiu
  • Luo, Biliang
  • Boris Choy, S.T.
  • Li, Yifei
  • He, Qinying

Abstract

There exist problems of land abandonment and low-efficiency land use when China is undergoing active rural-urban migration. Whether increasing land scale can attract more labor engaged in land use is important to increase land-use efficiency and relieve labor shortage in agriculture. This paper uses data from the 2015 China Household Finance Survey to assess the relationship between land renting-in and labor input in agriculture. The results show that land renting-in increases labor input in agriculture. With higher land rents and profit motives, more labor in lessees’ households will be engaged in agriculture. Further analysis indicates that there is no difference in labor input in agriculture between lessees transacting with acquaintances and those transacting with non-acquaintances for the increasing marketization of land rentals between acquaintances in today’s China. Our analysis implies that developing land rental markets and promoting the marketization of land rentals are important approaches to land use sustainability and relieving labor shortage in agriculture, which has great policy implications for countries with rapid rural-urban migration and abandoned arable land.

Suggested Citation

  • Tongwei, Qiu & Luo, Biliang & Boris Choy, S.T. & Li, Yifei & He, Qinying, 2020. "Do land renting-in and its marketization increase labor input in agriculture? Evidence from rural China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:99:y:2020:i:c:s0264837719319283
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104820
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837719319283
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104820?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. Qiu, Tongwei & Boris Choy, S.T. & Li, Shangpu & He, Qinying & Luo, Biliang, 2020. "Does land renting-in reduce grain production? Evidence from rural China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    2. Dwayne Benjamin & Loren Brandt, 2002. "Property rights, labour markets, and efficiency in a transition economy: the case of rural China," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 35(4), pages 689-716, November.
    3. Jikun Huang & Jiping Ding, 2016. "Institutional innovation and policy support to facilitate small-scale farming transformation in China," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 47(S1), pages 227-237, November.
    4. Liu, Ziming & Rommel, Jens & Feng, Shuyi & Hanisch, Markus, 2017. "Can land transfer through land cooperatives foster off-farm employment in China?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 35-44.
    5. Zhang, Linxiu & Huang, Jikun & Rozelle, Scott, 2002. "Employment, emerging labor markets, and the role of education in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(2-3), pages 313-328.
    6. 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.
    7. Lili Jia & Martin Petrick, 2014. "How does land fragmentation affect off-farm labor supply: panel data evidence from China," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 45(3), pages 369-380, May.
    8. Deininger, Klaus & Jin, Songqing, 2005. "The potential of land rental markets in the process of economic development: Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 241-270, October.
    9. Tongwei Qiu & Biliang Luo & S. T. Boris Choy & Xianlei Ma & Qinying He, 2020. "The demonstration effect of transactions between strangers on those between acquaintances: evidence from land rentals in rural China," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(43), pages 4780-4793, September.
    10. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
    11. Cheung, Steven N S, 1983. "The Contractual Nature of the Firm," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(1), pages 1-21, April.
    12. SHI, Xiaoping & Heerink, Nico & Qu, Futian, 2007. "Choices between different off-farm employment sub-categories: An empirical analysis for Jiangxi Province, China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 438-455.
    13. Fang Cai & Yang Lu, 2016. "Take-off, Persistence and Sustainability: The Demographic Factor in Chinese Growth," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(2), pages 203-225, May.
    14. 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.
    15. Awudu Abdulai & Renan Goetz, 2014. "Time-Related Characteristics of Tenancy Contracts and Investment in Soil Conservation Practices," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 59(1), pages 87-109, September.
    16. Chen, Zhuo & Huffman, Wallace E. & Rozelle, Scott, 2009. "Farm technology and technical efficiency: Evidence from four regions in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 153-161, June.
    17. Macours, Karen & Janvry, Alain de & Sadoulet, Elisabeth, 2010. "Insecurity of property rights and social matching in the tenancy market," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(7), pages 880-899, October.
    18. Liu, Yansui, 2018. "Introduction to land use and rural sustainability in China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 1-4.
    19. Yaohui Zhao, 1999. "Leaving the Countryside: Rural-to-Urban Migration Decisions in China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 281-286, May.
    20. 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.
    21. Mullan, Katrina & Grosjean, Pauline & Kontoleon, Andreas, 2011. "Land Tenure Arrangements and Rural-Urban Migration in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 123-133, January.
    22. Zhang, Xiaobo & Yang, Jin & Wang, Shenglin, 2011. "China has reached the Lewis turning point," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 542-554.
    23. Chernina, Eugenia & Castañeda Dower, Paul & Markevich, Andrei, 2014. "Property rights, land liquidity, and internal migration," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 191-215.
    24. Xiao, Wei & Zhao, Guochang, 2018. "Agricultural Land and Rural-Urban Migration in China: A New Pattern," RIEI Working Papers 2018-09, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Research Institute for Economic Integration.
    25. Fang Cai and Yang Lu, 2016. "Take-off, Persistence and Sustainability: The Demographic Factor in Chinese Growth," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies 201618, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    26. Jikun Huang & Liangliang Gao & Scott Rozelle, 2012. "The effect of off‐farm employment on the decisions of households to rent out and rent in cultivated land in China," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 4(1), pages 5-17, January.
    27. Wang, Yahui & Li, Xiubin & Li, Wei & Tan, Minghong, 2018. "Land titling program and farmland rental market participation in China: Evidence from pilot provinces," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 281-290.
    28. Wanglin Ma & Alan Renwick & Quentin Grafton, 2018. "Farm machinery use, off†farm employment and farm performance in China," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 62(2), pages 279-298, April.
    29. Songqing Jin & T. S. Jayne, 2013. "Land Rental Markets in Kenya: Implications for Efficiency, Equity, Household Income, and Poverty," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 89(2), pages 246-271.
    30. Feng, Shuyi & Heerink, Nico & Ruben, Ruerd & Qu, Futian, 2010. "Land rental market, off-farm employment and agricultural production in Southeast China: A plot-level case study," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 598-606, December.
    31. Freeman, Richard B & Schettkat, Ronald, 2001. "Marketization of Production and the US-Europe Employment Gap," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 63(0), pages 647-670, Special I.
    32. Fang Cai, 2018. "The Great Exodus," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 10(1), pages 3-15, February.
    33. Kung, James Kai-sing, 2002. "Off-Farm Labor Markets and the Emergence of Land Rental Markets in Rural China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 395-414, 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. Li, Linfei & Khan, Sufyan Ullah & Guo, Chenhao & Huang, Yanfen & Xia, Xianli, 2022. "Non-agricultural labor transfer, factor allocation and farmland yield: Evidence from the part-time peasants in Loess Plateau region of Northwest China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    2. Tingting Fang & Yuefei Zhuo & Cifang Wu & Yihu Zhou & Zhongguo Xu & Guan Li, 2022. "Exploration of Informal Farmland Leasing Mode: A Case Study of Huang Village in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-18, May.
    3. Wang, Ziyang & Wang, Wenxiong & Yu, Lihong & Zhang, Dongli, 2022. "Multidimensional poverty alleviation effect of different rural land consolidation models: A case study of Hubei and Guizhou, China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    4. Shichao Yuan & Jian Wang, 2022. "Involution Effect: Does China’s Rural Land Transfer Market Still Have Efficiency?," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-18, May.
    5. Zou, Baoling & Mishra, Ashok K., 2023. "Does Mechanization Improve the Regional Economy? A County-Level Empirical Assessment from China," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335478, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Li, Jingrong & Zhang, Chenlei & Mi, Yunsheng, 2021. "Land titling and internal migration: Evidence from China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    7. Mengna Lu & Yuan Qi & Jiaqing Zhang & Daolin Zhu, 2023. "The Impact of Rural Credit on Cultivated Land Use Efficiency: An Empirical Analysis Using China Rural Revitalization Survey Data," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-16, October.
    8. Yuanjie Zhang & Shichao Yuan & Jian Wang & Jian Cheng & Daolin Zhu, 2022. "How Do the Different Types of Land Costs Affect Agricultural Crop-Planting Selections in China?," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-18, October.
    9. Yang Qi & Mingyue Gao & Haoyu Wang & Huijie Ding & Jianxu Liu & Songsak Sriboonchitta, 2023. "Does Marketization Promote High-Quality Agricultural Development in China?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-28, June.
    10. Xiaoyu Sun & Weijing Zhu & Aili Chen & Gangqiao Yang, 2022. "Land Certificated Program and Farmland “Stickiness” of Rural Labor: Based on the Perspective of Land Production Function," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-24, September.
    11. Weiping Jia & Xianwen Jia & Ling Wu & Yanbing Guo & Teng Yang & Ermei Wang & Pan Xiao, 2022. "Research on regional differences of the impact of clean energy development on carbon dioxide emission and economic growth," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-9, December.
    12. Fujia Sui & Yinsheng Yang & Shizhen Zhao, 2022. "Labor Structure, Land Fragmentation, and Land-Use Efficiency from the Perspective of Mediation Effect: Based on a Survey of Garlic Growers in Lanling, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-17, June.
    13. Daquan Huang & Yu Chen & Tao Liu & Ming Liu, 2023. "A GIS-Based Typological Interpretation of Cultivated Land Loss: A Spatiotemporal Analysis of Tai’an Prefecture in the North China Plain," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-19, January.
    14. Wang, Qian & Li, Fan & Heerink, Nico & Yu, Jin & Fleskens, Luuk & Ritsema, Coen J., 2023. "Land Rental Markets, Specialization and Rural Household Income: Evidence from the North China Plain," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 48(3), September.

    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. Jian Zhang & Ashok K. Mishra & Peixin Zhu, 2021. "Land rental markets and labor productivity: Evidence from rural China," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 69(1), pages 93-115, March.
    2. Tongwei Qiu & Xinjie Shi & Biliang Luo, 2022. "Formalizing agricultural rentals in China: Does local public action help?," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 40(4), July.
    3. Li, Xinyi & Ito, Junichi, 2021. "An empirical study of land rental development in rural Gansu, China: The role of agricultural cooperatives and transaction costs," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    4. Qiu, Tongwei & Shi, Xinjie & He, Qinying & Luo, Biliang, 2021. "The paradox of developing agricultural mechanization services in China: Supporting or kicking out smallholder farmers?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    5. Qiu, Tongwei & Boris Choy, S.T. & Li, Shangpu & He, Qinying & Luo, Biliang, 2020. "Does land renting-in reduce grain production? Evidence from rural China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    6. Zhang, Jian & Mishra, Ashok K. & Ma, Xianlei, 2023. "Mechanism of Chinese farmers’ land rental participation: The role of invisible markets and public intervention," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    7. Jia, Lili & Petrick, Martin, 2014. "How does land fragmentation affect off-farm labor supply: panel data evidence from China," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 45(3), pages 369-380.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. Zhang, Jian & Mishra, Ashok K. & Zhu, Peixin, 2023. "Land Markets and Labor Productivity: Empirical Evidence from China," IZA Discussion Papers 16575, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Ren, Guangcheng & Zhu, Xueqin & Heerink, Nico & Feng, Shuyi, 2020. "Rural household migration in China – the roles of actual and perceived tenure security," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    12. Zhang, Jian & Mishra, Ashok K. & Hirsch, Stefan, 2021. "Market-oriented agriculture and farm performance: Evidence from rural China," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    13. Xianlei Ma & Nico Heerink & Ekko Ierland & Xiaoping Shi, 2016. "Land tenure insecurity and rural-urban migration in rural China," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(2), pages 383-406, June.
    14. Wenjing Han & Zhengfeng Zhang & Xiaoling Zhang & Li He, 2021. "Farmland Rental Participation, Agricultural Productivity, and Household Income: Evidence from Rural China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-22, August.
    15. Jia, Lili & Petrick, Martin, 2011. "How land fragmentation affects off-farm labor supply in China: Evidence from household panel data," 51st Annual Conference, Halle, Germany, September 28-30, 2011 114522, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA).
    16. Hengzhou Xu & Yihang Zhao & Ronghui Tan & Hongchun Yin, 2017. "Does the Policy of Rural Land Rights Confirmation Promote the Transfer of Farmland in China?," Acta Oeconomica, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 67(4), pages 643-672, December.
    17. Jia, Lili, 2012. "Land fragmentation and off-farm labor supply in China," Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition Economies, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), volume 66, number 66.
    18. Xu, Licheng & Du, Xiaodong, 2020. "Land certification, rental market participation, and income dynamics in rural China," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304247, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    19. Zou, Baoling & Mishra, Ashok K. & Luo, Biliang, 2020. "Grain subsidy, off-farm labor supply and farmland leasing: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    20. Wang, Yahui & Li, Xiubin & Li, Wei & Tan, Minghong, 2018. "Land titling program and farmland rental market participation in China: Evidence from pilot provinces," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 281-290.

    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:lauspo:v:99:y:2020:i:c:s0264837719319283. 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: Joice Jiang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/land-use-policy .

    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.