Examining the effect of land transfer on landlords' income in China: An application of the endogenous switching model

Abstract

The paper looks at factors that influence landlords' decision to transfer their farmlands and how farmland transfer has impacted on landlords' income. The essence of farmland transfer policy is to promote efficiency in agricultural land use. Endogenous regression model was adopted for the study because of its ability to handle the transfer decisions and impact of transfer decision on outcome simultaneously. The data were obtained from selected communities in Yunnan province, China. A total of 260 landlords were randomly selected for the study. The result shows that out-migration, off-farm income, agesq, public infrastructure and skill training influence transfer decision positively. The results further show that famine experience, access to credit, education and age negatively influence farmland transfer decision. The results show that farmland transfer leads to a significant increase in landlords' income.

Keywords

• Farmland
• Land transfer
• Out-migration
• China
• Agricultural economics
• Agricultural policy