Ziyuan Kexue (Apr 2023)
Impact and mechanism of rural non-agricultural employment stability on farmland transfer contract extension of transfer-out households
Abstract
[Objective] Promoting farmland transfer contract extension of transfer-out households is the fundamental premise of for strengthening and stabilizing the farmland rights, developing moderate & scale management, and establishing a strong agricultural country. Under the new employment form, the stability of non-agricultural employment of transfer-out households is severely challenged, which further affects whether they will continue to sign farmland transfer contracts. However, previous research has not revealed the causal effect and transmission mechanism between the stability of rural non-agricultural employment and the contract extension of farmland transfer-out households. [Methods] Based on the data of 516 farmland transfer-out households in Shaanxi and Gansu Provinces, this study measured the stability of non-agricultural employment from non-agricultural employment time, non-agricultural income proportion, and non-agricultural employment satisfaction, and employed the IV-Heckman model and mediation effect analysis to empirically analyze the impact and mechanism of the stability of rural non-agricultural employment on the contract extension of farmland transfer-out households. [Results] (1) The average non-agricultural employment stability of farmland transfer-out households was 3.016, 58.72% of the transfer-out households were willing to extend farmland transfer contracts, and the average extension period was 3.752 years. (2) After overcoming the measurement error and the endogeneity issues caused by the reverse causality of non-agricultural employment stability, as well as the sample selection issue caused by farmland transfer-out households’ willingness to extend contracts, non-agricultural employment stability had a positive effect on transfer-out households’ extension willingness and extension period. The empirical results are robust. (3) Mechanism analysis showed that non-agricultural employment stability affects both extension willingness and extension period through the population adsorption effect and livelihood risk perception, and only affects extension willingness through the farmland transfer-out earnings expectation. [Conclusion] This article put forward some policy recommendations, including strengthening the ability of enterprises to create non-agricultural jobs, improving the skills of non-agricultural employment of farmland transfer-out households, enhancing the supply of basic public services in non-agricultural employment cities, and strengthening the management of the whole chain of farmland transfer contract extension.
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