Influence of rural land transfer on agricultural carbon emissions and its spatial characteristics

Abstract

[Objective] In-depth analysis of the carbon emission effect of rural land transfer is absent in existing studies. Therefore, this study systematically analyzed the influence of rural land transfer on agricultural carbon emissions and its mechanism. [Methods] This article first discussed rural land transfer and its potential influence on carbon emissions. Then by using the 2005-2020 provincial panel data of China’s mainland and the two-way fixed effects regression model, instrumental variable model, mediation effect model, and spatial econometric model, it empirically analyzed the effect of rural land transfer on agricultural carbon emissions, its intermediary pathways, and spatial characteristics on the basis of strict tests. [Results] The results show that: (1) Rural land transfer overall promotes the increase of agricultural carbon emissions; (2) The scale of agricultural operation has some mediation effect in the process of rural land transfer promoting the increase of agricultural carbon emissions. That is, rural land transfer can have a positive impact on agricultural carbon emissions by improving the scale of agricultural operation; (3) When considering the spatial effect, rural land transfer has a significant positive impact on agricultural carbon emissions in the home region and a significant negative impact on agricultural carbon emissions in neighboring regions. The scale of agricultural operation has a partial mediation effect in the process of rural land transfer influencing agricultural carbon emissions in the home region. [Conclusion] Therefore, we should pay attention to the carbon emission reduction work in the process of rural land transfer and promote the inter-provincial agricultural cooperation in emission reduction.

Keywords

• |rural land transfer|agricultural carbon emissions|mediation effect|spatial effect|instrumental variable|china