IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v13y2024i9p1459-d1473639.html

The Role of Procedural Fairness: Land Titling Programs and Agricultural Investment in China

Author

Listed:
  • Yilin Cui

    (School of Public Administration and Policy, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Cong Li

    (College of Public Administration, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi 830052, China
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Yan Jiang

    (Center of Applied Statistics, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China)

Abstract

This study examines the moderating role of procedural fairness between land titling programs and agricultural investment. We constructed a theoretical model that introduces perceived security of land tenure and procedural fairness into the traditional “property rights-investment incentives” analytical framework. Moreover, we empirically analyze the impact of land titling and its procedural fairness on agricultural investment using data from the “Thousands of People, Hundreds of Villages” survey held in 2018 among 9596 households in China. The empirical analyses were conducted by using the ordinary least squares (OLS), probit, and instrumental variable methods. Our analysis showed that land titling in China significantly promotes agricultural investment by farm households and that procedural fairness has a significant positive moderating role in the investment incentive effect of land titling as well as significantly improving the institutional credibility of land titling and enhancing farmers’ perceived land tenure security.

Suggested Citation

  • Yilin Cui & Cong Li & Yan Jiang, 2024. "The Role of Procedural Fairness: Land Titling Programs and Agricultural Investment in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-19, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:9:p:1459-:d:1473639
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/9/1459/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/9/1459/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Brasselle, Anne-Sophie & Gaspart, Frederic & Platteau, Jean-Philippe, 2002. "Land tenure security and investment incentives: puzzling evidence from Burkina Faso," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 373-418, April.
    3. Jean‐Louis Van Gelder, 2009. "Legal Tenure Security, Perceived Tenure Security and Housing Improvement in Buenos Aires: An Attempt towards Integration," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 126-146, March.
    4. Hanan G. Jacoby & Guo Li & Scott Rozelle, 2002. "Hazards of Expropriation: Tenure Insecurity and Investment in Rural China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1420-1447, December.
    5. repec:dau:papers:123456789/11412 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Ennea Fairchild & Peggy Petrzelka, 2022. "Landownership and power: reorienting land tenure theory," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(3), pages 997-1006, September.
    7. Ambe J. Njoh, 2013. "Equity, Fairness and Justice Implications of Land Tenure Formalization in C ameroon," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 750-768, March.
    8. Jorge García Hombrados & Maira Devisscher & María Herreros Martínez, 2015. "The Impact of land titling on agricultural production and agricultural investments in Tanzania: a theory-based approach," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(4), pages 530-544, December.
    9. Jyoti Shukla, 2021. "Compulsory yet Fair Acquisition of Land: Assessing Procedural Fairness of Compulsory Acquisition Process in India," Journal of Property Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(3), pages 238-261, July.
    10. Deininger, Klaus & Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Holden, Stein & Zevenbergen, Jaap, 2008. "Rural Land Certification in Ethiopia: Process, Initial Impact, and Implications for Other African Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 1786-1812, October.
    11. Carolin Dieterle, 2022. "Global Governance Meets Local Land Tenure: International Codes of Conduct for Responsible Land Investments in Uganda," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(3), pages 582-598, March.
    12. Hong, Weijie & Luo, Biliang & Hu, Xinyan, 2020. "Land titling, land reallocation experience, and investment incentives: Evidence from rural China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    13. Atwood, David A., 1990. "Land registration in Africa: The impact on agricultural production," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 659-671, May.
    14. Kung, James Kai-sing, 2002. "Choice of Land Tenure in China: The Case of a Country with Quasi-Private Property Rights," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 50(4), pages 793-817, July.
    15. Smith, Robert E., 2004. "Land Tenure, Fixed Investment, and Farm Productivity: Evidence from Zambia's Southern Province," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 1641-1661, October.
    16. Zhou, Yang & Li, Xunhuan & Liu, Yansui, 2020. "Rural land system reforms in China: History, issues, measures and prospects," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    17. Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Deininger, Klaus & Goldstein, Markus, 2014. "Environmental and gender impacts of land tenure regularization in Africa: Pilot evidence from Rwanda," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 262-275.
    18. Steven Lawry & Cyrus Samii & Ruth Hall & Aaron Leopold & Donna Hornby & Farai Mtero, 2017. "The impact of land property rights interventions on investment and agricultural productivity in developing countries: a systematic review," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 61-81, January.
    19. Alston, Lee J & Libecap, Gary D & Schneider, Robert, 1996. "The Determinants and Impact of Property Rights: Land Titles on the Brazilian Frontier," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(1), pages 25-61, April.
    20. 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.
    21. Markus Goldstein & Christopher Udry, 2008. "The Profits of Power: Land Rights and Agricultural Investment in Ghana," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(6), pages 981-1022, December.
    22. Doss, Cheryl & Meinzen-Dick, Ruth, 2020. "Land tenure security for women: A conceptual framework," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    23. 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.
    24. Cao, Yu & Zhang, Xiaoling, 2018. "Are they satisfied with land taking? Aspects on procedural fairness, monetary compensation and behavioral simulation in China’s land expropriation story," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 166-178.
    25. Huntington, Heather & Shenoy, Ajay, 2021. "Does insecure land tenure deter investment? Evidence from a randomized controlled trial," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    26. Jyoti Rao & Norman Hutchison & Piyush Tiwari, 2020. "Analysing the process of compulsory acquisition of land through the lens of procedural fairness: evidence from Scotland," Journal of Property Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(1), pages 62-84, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Qian, Chen & Antonides, Gerrit & Heerink, Nico & Zhu, Xueqin & Ma, Xianlei, 2022. "An economic-psychological perspective on perceived land tenure security: Evidence from rural eastern China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    2. Ghebru, Hosaena, 2012. "Tenure (in)security and agricultural investment of smallholder farmers in Mozambique," Mozambique Working Paper 5, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    3. Anthony Harris & Anthony D'Agostino & Sara Litke-Farzaneh & Beryl Seiler & Matt Sloan, "undated". "Morocco Land Productivity Project: Evaluation Design Report," Mathematica Policy Research Reports f3fc788501b64608b17e1cb23, Mathematica Policy Research.
    4. Ayalew, Hailemariam & Admasu, Yeshwas & Chamberlin, Jordan, 2021. "Is land certification pro-poor? Evidence from Ethiopia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    5. Gottlieb, Charles & Grobovšek, Jan, 2019. "Communal land and agricultural productivity," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 135-152.
    6. Deininger, Klaus & Xia, Fang & Kilic, Talip & Moylan, Heather, 2021. "Investment impacts of gendered land rights in customary tenure systems: Substantive and methodological insights from Malawi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    7. Deininger, Klaus & Jin, Songqing, 2006. "Tenure security and land-related investment: Evidence from Ethiopia," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(5), pages 1245-1277, July.
    8. Ho, Hoang-Anh, 2021. "Land tenure and economic development: Evidence from Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    9. Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Deininger, Klaus, 2022. "Institutional determinants of large land-based investments’ performance in Zambia: Does title enhance productivity and structural transformation?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    10. Zhou, Nan & Cheng, Wenli & Zhang, Longyao, 2022. "Land rights and investment incentives: Evidence from China’s Latest Rural Land Titling Program," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    11. Markussen, Thomas, 2008. "Property Rights, Productivity, and Common Property Resources: Insights from Rural Cambodia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 2277-2296, November.
    12. Uwacu Alban Singirankabo & Maurits Willem Ertsen, 2020. "Relations between Land Tenure Security and Agricultural Productivity: Exploring the Effect of Land Registration," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-18, May.
    13. Fenske, James, 2011. "Land tenure and investment incentives: Evidence from West Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(2), pages 137-156, July.
    14. Rincón Barajas, Jorge A., 2023. "Productivity dynamics and state support after a land titling program: Evidence from Colombia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    15. Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Deininger, Klaus & Goldstein, Markus, 2014. "Environmental and gender impacts of land tenure regularization in Africa: Pilot evidence from Rwanda," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 262-275.
    16. Bambio, Yiriyibin & Bouayad Agha, Salima, 2018. "Land tenure security and investment: Does strength of land right really matter in rural Burkina Faso?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 130-147.
    17. Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Quisumbing, Agnes & Doss, Cheryl & Theis, Sophie, 2019. "Women's land rights as a pathway to poverty reduction: Framework and review of available evidence," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 72-82.
    18. Markussen, Thomas & Tarp, Finn, "undated". "Political connections and investment in rural Vietnam," 2011 ASAE 7th International Conference, October 13-15, Hanoi, Vietnam 291321, Asian Society of Agricultural Economists (ASAE).
    19. Xin Deng & Zhongcheng Yan & Dingde Xu & Yanbin Qi, 2020. "Land Registration, Adjustment Experience, and Agricultural Machinery Adoption: Empirical Analysis from Rural China," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-14, March.
    20. Kimlong Chheng & Budy P. Resosudarmo, 2021. "Land property rights and food insecurity in rural Cambodia," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(6), pages 1911-1929, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:gam:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:9:p:1459-:d:1473639. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.