IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp10640.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Forced off Farm? Labor Allocation Response to Land Requisition in Rural China

Author

Listed:
  • Ma, Shuang

    (Guangzhou University)

  • Mu, Ren

    (Texas A&M University)

Abstract

Land requisition has been an important process by which Chinese local governments promote urbanization and generate revenue. This study investigates the impacts of land requisition on farmers' decisions of labor allocation between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. We argue that, conditional on village fixed effects, land requisition can be explored as a quasi-natural experiment to identify the relationship between land rights and labor allocation of farmers. We find that young farmers (age 16-44) are not affected in their migration decisions by land loss through requisition, while some older farmers (age 45-55) are affected. In response to land loss through requisition, the probability that older farmers living beyond the mean distance from the county seat migrates to cities increases by 8.5 percentage points. An econometric test confirms that the finding is unlikely to be driven by unobserved variables associated with household experience of land loss. This finding raises concerns about the wellbeing of the farmers who may not be competitive in the urban labor market and therefore unlikely to leave farming unless they have to.

Suggested Citation

  • Ma, Shuang & Mu, Ren, 2017. "Forced off Farm? Labor Allocation Response to Land Requisition in Rural China," IZA Discussion Papers 10640, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10640
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp10640.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joseph G. Altonji & Todd E. Elder & Christopher R. Taber, 2005. "Selection on Observed and Unobserved Variables: Assessing the Effectiveness of Catholic Schools," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(1), pages 151-184, February.
    2. 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.
    3. Alan de Brauw & Valerie Mueller, 2012. "Do Limitations in Land Rights Transferability Influence Mobility Rates in Ethiopia?," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 21(4), pages 548-579, August.
    4. Sánchez, Fabio & López-Uribe, María del Pilar & Fazio, Antonella, 2010. "Land Conflicts, Property Rights, and the Rise of the Export Economy in Colombia, 1850–1925," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 70(2), pages 378-399, June.
    5. de la Rupelle, Maëlys & Quheng, Deng & Li, Shi & Vendryes, Thomas, 2009. "Land Rights Insecurity and Temporary Migration in Rural China," IZA Discussion Papers 4668, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Dwayne Benjamin & Loren Brandt & Jia-Zhueng Fan, 2003. "Ceaseless Toil? Health and Labor Supply of the Elderly in Rural China," Working Papers benjamin-03-01, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    7. Rose, Elaina, 2001. "Ex ante and ex post labor supply response to risk in a low-income area," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 371-388, April.
    8. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    9. Giles, John, 2006. "Is life more risky in the open? Household risk-coping and the opening of China's labor markets," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 25-60, October.
    10. 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.
    11. 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.
    12. World Bank, 2007. "China : Public Services for Building the New Socialist Countryside," World Bank Publications - Reports 7665, The World Bank Group.
    13. Barbara G. Katz & Joel Owen, 2009. "Are property rights enough? Re‐evaluating a big‐bang claim1," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 17(1), pages 75-96, January.
    14. Rozelle Scott & Boisvert Richard N., 1994. "Quantifying Chinese Village Leaders' Multiple Objectives," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 25-45, February.
    15. Fang Cai & John Giles & Philip O'Keefe & Dewen Wang, 2012. "The Elderly and Old Age Support in Rural China : Challenges and Prospects," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2249.
    16. Khantachavana, Sivalai V. & Turvey, Calum G. & Kong, Rong & Xia, Xianli, 2013. "On the transaction values of land use rights in rural China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 863-878.
    17. repec:wbk:wbpubs:6007 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Anjini Kochar, 1999. "Smoothing Consumption by Smoothing Income: Hours-of-Work Responses to Idiosyncratic Agricultural Shocks in Rural India," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(1), pages 50-61, February.
    19. 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.
    20. Oriana Bandiera, 2007. "Land Tenure, Investment Incentives, and the Choice of Techniques: Evidence from Nicaragua," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 21(3), pages 487-508, May.
    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. Avery Cole & Xuan Chen, 2021. "Off‐farm employment in aquaculture: A case study of New England's oyster growers," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 69(3), pages 369-382, September.
    2. Serhiy Ostapchuk, 2017. "Chinese Model of Land Use Accounting: Lessons for Ukraine," Oblik i finansi, Institute of Accounting and Finance, issue 2, pages 57-62, June.
    3. Gao, Xuwen & Shi, Xinjie & Fang, Shile, 2021. "Property rights and misallocation: Evidence from land certification in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    4. Wang, Dazhe & Qian, Wenrong & Guo, Xiaolin, 2019. "Gains and losses: Does farmland acquisition harm farmers’ welfare?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 78-90.

    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. Ma, Shuang & Mu, Ren, 2020. "Forced off the farm? Farmers’ labor allocation response to land requisition in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    2. 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.
    3. Zhao, Xiaoxue, 2020. "Land and labor allocation under communal tenure: Theory and evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    4. Hongqin Chang & Jing Liu & Yanyun Gao, 2017. "Land tenure policy and women’s off-farm employment in rural China," Working Papers PMMA 2017-03, PEP-PMMA.
    5. Luigi Minale, 2018. "Agricultural productivity shocks, labour reallocation and rural–urban migration in China," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 795-821.
    6. Alain de Janvry & Kyle Emerick & Marco Gonzalez-Navarro & Elisabeth Sadoulet, 2015. "Delinking Land Rights from Land Use: Certification and Migration in Mexico," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(10), pages 3125-3149, October.
    7. Liu, Shouying & Ma, Sen & Yin, Lijuan & Zhu, Jiong, 2023. "Land titling, human capital misallocation, and agricultural productivity in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    8. Kotchikpa Gabriel Lawin & Lota Tamini, 2018. "Droits de propriété foncière et performance des petits producteurs agricoles des pays en développement : une synthèse de la littérature empirique," CIRANO Working Papers 2018s-05, CIRANO.
    9. Lei Xu & Shixiang Chen & Shuliu Tian, 2022. "The Mechanism of Land Registration Program on Land Transfer in Rural China: Considering the Effects of Livelihood Security and Agricultural Management Incentives," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-25, August.
    10. Tseday Jemaneh Mekasha & Wilhelm Ngasamiaku & Remidius D. Ruhinduka & Finn Tarp, 2018. "Land tenure security and internal migration in Tanzania," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-158, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Tseday Jemaneh Mekasha & Wilhelm Ngasamiaku & Remidius D. Ruhinduka & Finn Tarp, 2018. "Land tenure security and internal migration in Tanzania," WIDER Working Paper Series 158, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. Andrew Dillon & Valerie Mueller & Sheu Salau, 2011. "Migratory Responses to Agricultural Risk in Northern Nigeria," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1048-1061.
    13. Nguyen, Linh, 2020. "Land Rights and Migration in Vietnam," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304192, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    14. ZHU, WENJUE & Luo, Biliang & Paudel, Krishna P., 2018. "The Influence of Land Titling Policy on the Rural Labor Migration to City: Evidence from China," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274163, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Yang Yang & Hua Li & Zhen Liu & Long Cheng & Assem Abu Hatab & Jing Lan, 2020. "Effect of Forestland Property Rights and Village Off-Farm Environment on Off-Farm Employment in Southern China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-17, March.
    16. Wang, D. & Qian, W., 2018. "Gains and losses: Does farmland expropriation harm farmers welfare?," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277301, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    17. Gottlieb, Charles & Grobovšek, Jan, 2019. "Communal land and agricultural productivity," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 135-152.
    18. 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.
    19. Castells-Quintana, David & del Pilar Lopez-Uribe, Maria & McDermott, Thomas K.J., 2018. "A review of adaptation to climate change through a development economics lens," Working Papers 309605, National University of Ireland, Galway, Socio-Economic Marine Research Unit.
    20. Alan de Brauw & Valerie Mueller, 2012. "Do Limitations in Land Rights Transferability Influence Mobility Rates in Ethiopia?," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 21(4), pages 548-579, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    farmers; urbanization; migration; land requisition; land institution; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment
    • R28 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Government Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:iza:izadps:dp10640. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.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.