Review of Economic Studies Vol. 88 No. 4 2021

Property Rights, Land Misallocation, and Agricultural Efficiency in China

Amalavoyal Chari¹; Elaine M Liu²; Shing-Yi Wang³; Yong‐Xiang Wang⁴

¹ University of Sussex · ² University of Houston and NBER · ³ University of Pennsylvania and NBER · ⁴ Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen

Abstract

This article examines the impact of a property rights reform in rural China that allowed farmers to lease out their land. We find the reform led to increases in land rental activity in rural households. Our results indicate that the formalization of leasing rights resulted in a redistribution of land toward more-productive farmers. Consequently, output and aggregate productivity increased by 8% and 10%, respectively. We also find that the reform increased the responsiveness of land allocation across crops to changes in crop prices.

DOI

10.1093/restud/rdaa072

Volume

88

Issue

4

Pages

1831-1862

Language

en

Sources

openalex bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref

Cite

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