Plot-level productivity difference and its mechanism from the perspective of plot property rights: Based on the China Land Economic Survey data

Abstract

[Objective] Agricultural land transfer is an important way for farmers to expand the scale of their operations. Clarifying the plot-level productivity difference and its mechanism from the perspective of plot property rights has important policy implications for promoting agricultural land transfer with high quality and thus realizing large-scale agricultural operations. [Methods] Based on the data of the China Land Economic Survey (CLES) 2020-2021, this study constructed econometric models, including exogenous switching regression (ESR) and recentered influence function (RIF) decomposition, at the plot level to investigate the difference of rice productivity and its mechanism from the perspective of land use rights. [Results] The study found that: (1) There is a 3.5% productivity advantage in the mean value of the transferred plots compared with the contracted plots, which persists after controlling for individual and household characteristics; (2) The productivity advantage that exists in the transferred plots does not come from the differences in inputs between the contracted plots, but is shaped by two aspects: the differences in the endowment characteristics of the different property plots and the differences in the management inputs of the farmers on the different property plots. [Conclusion] It should continue to promote the orderly transfer of agricultural land management rights, develop moderate scale agricultural operations, and make it an important tool to optimize the allocation of agricultural land resources and ensure food security.

Keywords

• |agricultural land transfer|plot-level productivity|cles data|exogenous switching regression|recentered influence function decomposition|technical efficiency