Labor mobility, intrahousehold decision-making, and agricultural land leasing: An empirical study with agent-based modeling in rural south China.

摘要

Motivated by the coexisting challenges and opportunities facing rural farm households in rural south China, this dissertation investigates three particular issues concerning both intrahousehold and interhousehold interactions under the profound impact of labor rural-urban migration. Specifically, the first objective is to gain a better understanding of intrahousehold welfare distribution and the intrahousehold sharing rule through labor time allocation. The second objective is to understand the underlying individual rural farm household's decision-making structure under the impact of rural-to-urban migration. The third objective is to explore the dynamics surrounding household decision-making, related to the formation of land and labor markets. For the third objective, potential scenarios are simulated using agent-based modeling to address the impacts of growing off-farm work opportunities, new agricultural technology adoption and diffusion, and land policy reform at the village level.;This dissertation uses a baseline socioeconomic face-to-face household survey and key informant interviews undertaken for a project funded by the McKnight Foundation on phosphorous-efficient soybean cultivars being developed and now being released in south China; the survey and KI interviews were conducted in rural south China in summer, 2006. The survey was designed to provide an initial understanding of crop production (including soybean production decisions and anticipated P-efficient soybean adoption decisions), food consumption preferences, labor time allocation, land holding behaviors, and soybean and soybean product markets in the south China region. The KI interviews were designed to understand local trends in agriculture, soybeans, and the strong trend toward labor out-migration observed in the south China region.;Labor migration issues have been of great interest in development economics. Past studies of labor migration in China have largely focused on rural migrants to urban areas, while little attention is typically given to those who remain behind in the villages. More young adult and mid-age laborers flowing to exurban and urban regions for higher-wage off-farm employment may leave women, the elderly and very young household members behind, with more farm land available for cultivation in the village. Those left behind in the villages in China are responsible for agricultural production to secure the food supply for the most populated country in the world; and many are, at the same time, seeking jobs in nearby rural labor markets with the hope of bringing in extra income to improve their living conditions. Since off-farm work opportunities in urban, exurban and rural areas provide alternative sources of income to farm households, this is likely to affect intrahousehold resource allocation, labor time allocation, and farm production decisions of those who stay behind. Further, the entire household decision-making structure also may be affected such that the younger 'next generation'---having migrated for off-farm jobs---is no longer involved in making decisions influencing the farm and ultimately influencing food production for China.;In this dissertation, a collective modeling framework is used to analyze rural farm household labor supply behaviors in south China. Labor time allocation is modeled, while the imperfect wage labor market imposes constraints on off-farm labor supply and requires proper measurement of the farm shadow wage. The marginal product of labor (MPL) of on-farm production is estimated based on Jacoby's shadow wage method, which is essential to provide appropriate estimation of labor supply functions. Using labor time allocation as an assignable good, the intrahousehold nonlabor income sharing rule is derived. Furthermore, the impacts of the intrahousehold sharing rule, work participation behaviors, and other household characteristics are examined to analyze intrahousehold decision-making structure. Finally, agent-based modeling simulations are incorporated with a classical game-theoretic approach. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).