The impact of the reform of rural collective property rights system on villagers’ public participation: An empirical study based on CRRS 2020 data

The reform of rural collective property rights system is of great significance for protecting the collective asset rights and interests of villagers, activating rural resource elements, and achieving rural revitalization. This study is based on 284 village committee questionnaires and 7451 villager questionnaires from 10 provinces in China, and uses multi-layer linear regression models to explore the impact of the reform of rural collective property rights system on villagers’ public participation. Research has found that:(1) the reform of rural collective property rights system that has been completed at the rural level can significantly enhance the public participation of villagers, including total participation (β = 0.102, p ≤ 0.1), interest expression (β = 0.044, p ≤ 0.1), and election voting (β = 0.076, p ≤ 0.05). However, the impact on volunteer service is not significant (β = -0.004, p>0.1); (2)mechanism analysis shows that the reform can reduce the probability of migration for work, and thus enhance the level of public participation; (3)heterogeneity analysis reveals that the reform has a greater impact on the villagers’ public participation in suburban villages and villages with better collective economy; (4)further analysis discovers that villagers have heard that reform can significantly enhance their public participation. This study comprehensively explores the spillover effects of the reform at the village level on public participation at the individual level through the use of more accurate measurement indicators, empirical analysis methods, and large-scale authoritative data, providing strong support for proposing strategies to promote villages’ public participation.