Can land transfer through land cooperatives foster off-farm employment in China?

Abstract

Functioning land markets are necessary for an increase in off-farm employment. However, there is limited empirical evidence on the impact of land transfer on off-farm employment in rural China. This paper investigates the drivers of households' cooperative membership, which is equivalent to transferring land through land cooperatives, and its impact on off-farm employment. Using a two-step control function approach and data from Suzhou and Yangzhou (Jiangsu province), we do not find a general effect of cooperative membership on household heads' current off-farm employment, though the effect is large for households which had surplus agricultural labor before cooperative initiation. The effect is also positive and large for household heads without off-farm experience and households located in Yangzhou. Policy-makers should be aware of the distributional consequences of these heterogeneous effects.

Keywords

Land market; Labor market; Land cooperative; Control function; Jiangsu

Published in

China Economic Review
2017, Volume: 45, pages: 35-44

UKÄ Subject classification

Economics


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2017.06.002

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/95683