The Impact of Property Rights on Households' Investment, Risk Coping, and Policy Preferences: Evidence from China

35 Pages Posted: 20 Apr 2016

See all articles by Klaus Deininger

Klaus Deininger

World Bank - Development Economics Group (DEC); World Bank - Development Research Group (DECRG)

Songqing Jin

Michigan State University

Date Written: November 2002

Abstract

Even though it is widely recognized that giving farmers more secure land rights may increase agricultural investment, scholars contend that, in the case of China, such a policy might undermine the function of land as a social safety net and, as a consequence, not be sustainable or command broad support. Data from three provinces, one of which had adopted a policy to increase security of tenure in advance of the others, suggest that greater tenure security, especially if combined with transferability of land, had a positive impact on agricultural investment and, within the time frame considered, led neither to an increase in inequality of land distribution nor a reduction in households' ability to cope with exogenous shocks. Household support for more secure property rights is increased by their access to other insurance mechanisms, suggesting some role of land as a safety net. At the same time, past exposure to this type of land right has a much larger impact quantitatively, suggesting that a large part of the resistance to changed property rights arrangements disappears as household familiarity with such rights increases.

This paper - a product of Rural Development, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to assess the impact of land market policy.

Suggested Citation

Deininger, Klaus and Jin, Songqing, The Impact of Property Rights on Households' Investment, Risk Coping, and Policy Preferences: Evidence from China (November 2002). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=636293

Klaus Deininger (Contact Author)

World Bank - Development Economics Group (DEC) ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://econ.worldbank.org/staff/kdeininger

World Bank - Development Research Group (DECRG)

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Songqing Jin

Michigan State University ( email )

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East Lansing, MI 48824-1122
United States