Farmers’ attitudes toward land titling and its potential effects on rural development in China
China Agricultural Economic Review
ISSN: 1756-137X
Article publication date: 12 July 2018
Issue publication date: 22 August 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate farmers’ attitudes and behavior toward land titling and to study its potential effects on rural development.
Design/methodology/approach
Using household survey data collected from five provinces of China in 2010, this paper assesses farmer’s attitudes toward land titling and examines the potential effects of land titling on rural land transferring and labor migration.
Findings
Rural residential land titling has significant effects on farmers’ attitudes toward land transferring and their migration intention. Farmers who have more non-agricultural development opportunities are more likely to welcome land titling. The titling of rural residential land could provide secure property rights for farmers, and thus stimulate them to trade, mortgage their rural residential property, and migrate to urban areas.
Research limitations/implications
Land titling in rural China will probably affect rural land transferring and encourage rural labor migrate to urban, and thus promote rural development.
Originality/value
This paper investigates farmers’ attitudes and behavior toward land titling, and examines its potential effects on rural land transferring and labor migration, based on national survey data. This paper sheds new lights on farmers’ demand for types of land tenure reforms and how these reforms would affect the perceived opportunities available for farmers.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Key Project of Philosophy and Social Science of Zhejiang Province (18NDJC030Z), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos 71774143, 71373243), National Social Science Foundation of China (No. 17BGL130), Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation (LY17G030016), Project of Philosophy and Social Science of Zhejiang Province (15NDJC185YB), the Advance Project of Humanities and Social Sciences of Zhejiang University of Technology, and the Research Center of Technology Innovation and Enterprises Internationalization, Key Research Base of Philosophy and Social Science of Zhejiang Province.
Citation
Huang, Z. and Du, X. (2018), "Farmers’ attitudes toward land titling and its potential effects on rural development in China", China Agricultural Economic Review, Vol. 10 No. 3, pp. 425-442. https://doi.org/10.1108/CAER-10-2015-0130
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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