IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zbw/espost/155660.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How does land fragmentation affect off-farm labor supply: panel data evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Jia, Lili
  • Petrick, Martin

Abstract

This article provides a deeper theoretical understanding of the linkages between land fragmentation and off-farm labor supply in China, and investigates this relationship empirically in a more direct way than does the existing literature. Drawing upon a rural household panel data set collected in Zhejiang, Hubei, and Yunnan Provinces from 1995 to 2002, we estimate the effects in two steps. First, we estimate the effect of land fragmentation on labor productivity. Second, we estimate the effect of land fragmentation on off-farm labor supply. The production function results show that land fragmentation indeed leads to lower agricultural labor productivity, implying that land consolidation will make on-farm work more attractive and thus decrease off-farm labor supply. However, the effect of land consolidation on off-farm labor supply is not significant. One likely explanation for this result may be the potentially imperfect labor markets.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:155660
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/155660/1/Jia_2014_Land_fragmentation.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Bowlus, Audra J. & Sicular, Terry, 2003. "Moving toward markets? Labor allocation in rural China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 561-583, August.
    3. Liu, Shouying & Carter, Michael R. & Yao, Yang, 1998. "Dimensions and diversity of property rights in rural China: Dilemmas on the road to further reform," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(10), pages 1789-1806, October.
    4. Brosig, Stephan & Glauben, Thomas & Herzfeld, Thomas & Rozelle, Scott & Wang, Xiaobing, 2007. "The dynamics of Chinese rural households' participation in labor markets," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 37(2-3), pages 167-178.
    5. Deaton, Angus, 1995. "Data and econometric tools for development analysis," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 33, pages 1785-1882, Elsevier.
    6. Tao Yang, Dennis, 2004. "Education and allocative efficiency: household income growth during rural reforms in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 137-162, June.
    7. de Brauw, Alan & Huang, Jikun & Rozelle, Scott & Zhang, Linxiu & Zhang, Yigang, 2002. "The Evolution of China's Rural Labor Markets During the Reforms," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 329-353, June.
    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. Wooldridge, Jeffrey M., 1995. "Selection corrections for panel data models under conditional mean independence assumptions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 115-132, July.
    10. Michael R. Carter & Yang Yao, 2002. "Local versus Global Separability in Agricultural Household Models: The Factor Price Equalization Effect of Land Transfer Rights," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 84(3), pages 702-715.
    11. Daniel A. Sumner, 1982. "The Off-Farm Labor Supply of Farmers," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 64(3), pages 499-509.
    12. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
    13. Yair Mundlak, 1961. "Empirical Production Function Free of Management Bias," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 43(1), pages 44-56.
    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. Fangbin Qiao & Jing Chen & Colin Carter & Jikun Huang & Scott Rozelle, 2011. "Market Development And The Rise And Fall Of Backyard Hog Production In China," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 49(2), pages 203-222, June.
    16. Wang, Xiaobing & Herzfeld, Thomas & Glauben, Thomas, 2007. "Labor allocation in transition: Evidence from Chinese rural households," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 287-308.
    17. Guang Wan & Enjiang Cheng, 2001. "Effects of land fragmentation and returns to scale in the Chinese farming sector," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(2), pages 183-194.
    18. 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.
    19. 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.
    20. Tao Ran & Mr. R. Brooks, 2003. "China's Labor Market Performance and Challenges," IMF Working Papers 2003/210, International Monetary Fund.
    21. Emi Uchida & Scott Rozelle & Jintao Xu, 2009. "Conservation Payments, Liquidity Constraints, and Off-Farm Labor: Impact of the Grain-for-Green Program on Rural Households in China," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 91(1), pages 70-86.
    22. Kung, James Kai-sing, 2000. "Common Property Rights and Land Reallocations in Rural China: Evidence from a Village Survey," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 701-719, April.
    23. 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.
    24. repec:adr:anecst:y:1999:i:55-56:p:06 is not listed on IDEAS
    25. Uchida, Emi & Rozelle, Scott & Jintao, Xu, 2008. "AJAE appendix for ‘Conservation Payments, Liquidity Constraints and Off-Farm Labor: Impact of the Grain for Green Program on Rural Households in China’," American Journal of Agricultural Economics APPENDICES, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 91(1), pages 1-6, March.
    26. Loren Brandt & Scott Rozelle & Matthew A. Turner, 2004. "Local Government Behavior and Property Right Formation in Rural China," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 160(4), pages 627-662, December.
    27. Guo Li & Scott Rozelle & Loren Brandt, 1998. "Tenure, land rights, and farmer investment incentives in China," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 19(1-2), pages 63-71, September.
    28. Emmanuel Skoufias, 1994. "Using Shadow Wages to Estimate Labor Supply of Agricultural Households," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 76(2), pages 215-227.
    29. Tan, Shuhao & Heerink, Nico & Kruseman, Gideon & Qu, Futian, 2008. "Do fragmented landholdings have higher production costs? Evidence from rice farmers in Northeastern Jiangxi province, P.R. China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 347-358, September.
    30. Rozelle, Scott & Li, Guo, 1998. "Village Leaders and Land-Rights Formation in China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(2), pages 433-438, May.
    31. Yao, Yang, 1999. "Rural industry and labor market integration in eastern China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 463-496, August.
    32. Benjamin, Dwayne, 1992. "Household Composition, Labor Markets, and Labor Demand: Testing for Separation in Agricultural Household Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 60(2), pages 287-322, March.
    33. B. L. Gardner & G. C. Rausser (ed.), 2001. "Handbook of Agricultural Economics," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 2.
    34. B. L. Gardner & G. C. Rausser (ed.), 2001. "Handbook of Agricultural Economics," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    35. Dong, Xiao-Yuan, 1996. "Two-tier land tenure system and sustained economic growth in post-1978 rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 915-928, May.
    36. Yanjie Zhang & Xiaobing Wang & Thomas Glauben & Bernhard Brümmer, 2011. "The impact of land reallocation on technical efficiency: evidence from China," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 42(4), pages 495-507, July.
    37. Nguyen, Tin & Cheng, Enjiang & Findlay, Christopher, 1996. "Land fragmentation and farm productivity in China in the 1990s," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 169-180.
    38. Mundlak, Yair, 2001. "Production and supply," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, in: B. L. Gardner & G. C. Rausser (ed.), Handbook of Agricultural Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 1, pages 3-85, Elsevier.
    39. Lin, Justin Yifu, 1992. "Rural Reforms and Agricultural Growth in China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(1), pages 34-51, March.
    40. Jikun Huang & Yunhua Wu & Scott Rozelle, 2009. "Moving off the farm and intensifying agricultural production in Shandong: a case study of rural labor market linkages in China," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 40(2), pages 203-218, March.
    41. Christian Dustmann & María Engracia Rochina-Barrachina, 2007. "Selection correction in panel data models: An application to the estimation of females' wage equations," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 10(2), pages 263-293, July.
    42. María Engracia Rochina-Barrachina, 1999. "A New Estimator for Panel Data Sample Selection Models," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 55-56, pages 153-181.
    43. 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. Tran, Duc & Vu, Ha Thu & Goto, Daisaku, 2022. "Agricultural land consolidation, labor allocation and land productivity: A case study of plot exchange policy in Vietnam," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 455-473.
    2. Qi, Yuan & Lin, Ruihan & Zhang, Jiaqing & Lu, Mengna & Zhang, Yiyue & Zhao, Haile & Chen, Xin & Li, Yaoyao & Zhu, Daolin, 2024. "Impact of farmland quality on farmland rents and its constraints: Evidence from plots in six Chinese provinces," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    3. Qinan Lu & Xiaodong Du & Huanguang Qiu, 2022. "Adoption patterns and productivity impacts of agricultural mechanization services," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 53(5), pages 826-845, September.
    4. Can Rao & Jingwen Yu & Hongfei Zhu, 2015. "Land Ownership as an Urban Employment Disincentive for Rural Migrants in China," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 53(2), pages 135-149, June.
    5. Chen, Xuan & Vuong, Nguyen, 2018. "Climate and Off-farm Labor Supply of Agricultural Households: Evidence from Rural Vietnam," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274187, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Jianzhai Wu & Jianhua Zhang & Shengwei Wang & Fantao Kong, 2016. "Assessment of Food Security in China: A New Perspective Based on Production-Consumption Coordination," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-14, March.
    7. Huy Quynh Nguyen & Peter Warr, 2018. "Land consolidation as technical change: impacts on-farm and off-farm in rural Vietnam," Departmental Working Papers 2018-25, The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.
    8. Hoken, Hisatoshi, 2017. "Development of off-farm employment and its determinants in rural China," IDE Discussion Papers 633, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    9. 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).
    10. Giefer, Madeline M. & An, Li, 2022. "Divergent impacts of the grain to green program, landholdings, and demographic factors on livelihood diversification in rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    11. Qiuyi Huang & Xiaoping Zheng & Ruimei Wang, 2022. "The Impact of the Accessibility of Transportation Infrastructure on the Non-Farm Employment Choices of Rural Laborers: Empirical Analysis Based on China’s Micro Data," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-15, June.
    12. Phuc Van Phan & Martin O'Brien, 2022. "Is small beautiful? An empirical analysis of land characteristics and rural household income in Vietnam," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 66(3), pages 561-580, July.
    13. Wang, Xiaobing & Yamauchi, Futoshi & Huang, Jikun & Rozelle, Scott, 2020. "What constrains mechanization in Chinese agriculture? Role of farm size and fragmentation," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    14. Shukun Wang & Dengwang Li & Tingting Li & Changquan Liu, 2021. "Land Use Transitions and Farm Performance in China: A Perspective of Land Fragmentation," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-22, July.
    15. Lei Zhang & Yunfei Liu & Changjun Yin & Dongping Xue & Dongwei Gui & Zhiming Qi, 2022. "Effects of Farmland Landscape Fragmentation on Agricultural Irrigation in Hotan Oasis," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-14, September.
    16. Lu, Hua & Xie, Hualin & He, Yafen & Wu, Zhilong & Zhang, Xinmin, 2018. "Assessing the impacts of land fragmentation and plot size on yields and costs: A translog production model and cost function approach," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 81-88.
    17. Xianqing Ji & Shouying Liu & Jianan Yan & Youyi Li, 2021. "Does Security of Land Operational Rights Matter for the Improvement of Agricultural Production Efficiency under the Collective Ownership in China?," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 29(1), pages 87-108, January.
    18. Pierre Damien Ntihinyurwa & Walter Timo de Vries, 2021. "Farmland Fragmentation, Farmland Consolidation and Food Security: Relationships, Research Lapses and Future Perspectives," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-39, January.
    19. Yi Luo & Dong Huang & Xue Qu & Laping Wu, 2022. "An Inverse Relationship between Farm Size and Rice Harvest Loss: Evidence from China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-14, October.

    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. 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).
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Wang, Xiaobing, 2007. "Labor market behavior of Chinese rural households during transition," Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition Economies, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), volume 42, number 92321.
    5. Wang, Xiaobing & Yu, Xiaohua, 2011. "Scale Effects, Technical Efficiency and Land Lease in China," 2011 ASAE 7th International Conference, October 13-15, Hanoi, Vietnam 290658, Asian Society of Agricultural Economists (ASAE).
    6. Wang, Xiaobing & Herzfeld, Thomas & Glauben, Thomas, 2007. "Labor allocation in transition: Evidence from Chinese rural households," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 287-308.
    7. 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.
    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. Hoken, Hisatoshi, 2012. "Development of land rental market and its effect on household farming in rural China : an empirical study in Zhejiang Province," IDE Discussion Papers 323, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    10. Zhang, Yanjie & Wang, Xiaobing & Brümmer, Bernhard & Yu, Xiaohua, 2012. "The impact of land security and input allocation on farm household income," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126467, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    11. Deininger, Klaus & Jin, Songqing, 2007. "Land rental markets in the process of rural structural transformation : productivity and equity impacts in China," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4454, The World Bank.
    12. Jin, Songqing & Deininger, Klaus, 2009. "Land rental markets in the process of rural structural transformation: Productivity and equity impacts from China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 629-646, December.
    13. 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.
    14. Che, Yi, 2009. "Mismatch: land reallocations, recovery land rental and land rental market development in rural China," MPRA Paper 39794, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. BROSIG, Stephan & GLAUBEN, Thomas & Herzfeld, Thomas & WANG, Xiaobing, 2009. "Persistence of full- and part-time farming in Southern China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 360-371, June.
    16. John Giles & Ren Mu, 2018. "Village Political Economy, Land Tenure Insecurity, and the Rural to Urban Migration Decision: Evidence from China," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 100(2), pages 521-544.
    17. Kai Huang & Xin Deng & Yi Liu & Zhuolin Yong & Dingde Xu, 2020. "Does off-Farm Migration of Female Laborers Inhibit Land Transfer? Evidence from Sichuan Province, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-14, January.
    18. 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).
    19. Xiaoqing Dai & Lijie Pu & Fangping Rao, 2017. "Assessing the Effect of a Crop-Tree Intercropping Program on Smallholders’ Incomes in Rural Xinjiang, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-19, August.
    20. Wang, Xiaobing & Yamauchi, Futoshi & Huang, Jikun & Rozelle, Scott, 2020. "What constrains mechanization in Chinese agriculture? Role of farm size and fragmentation," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Land fragmentation; Off-farm; Labor supply; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment
    • Q24 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Land
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

    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:zbw:espost:155660. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zbwkide.html .

    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.