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

摘要

AbstractFunctioning 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.Highlights?We study the effect of land transfer on households' off-farm employment.?Heterogeneous effects are found for different types of households.?The effect is insignificant for households which had less farm labor.?The effect is significant and positive for households which had more farm labor.]]>