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Land use rights, market transitions, and labour policy change in China (1980–84)

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  • Yiu Por Chen

Abstract

This paper provides a systematic analysis of the way shifts in property utilization rights in China induced another sequence of institutional changes that led to the rise of rural-urban labor migration from 1980 to 1984, a critical period in the country's market transition. I show that the 1980s' Household Responsibility System (HRS), which brought family farming back from the communal system, endowed rural households not only with land use rights, but also with de facto labor allocation rights. These shifts in property relations promoted a growth in agricultural market size as well as the emergence of intraprovincial non-hukou rural-urban migration, which may have made labor retention policies such as the small township strategy ineffective, and may have given the government an incentive to deregulate its subsequent labor market policy.
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  • Yiu Por Chen, 2012. "Land use rights, market transitions, and labour policy change in China (1980–84)," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 20(4), pages 705-743, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:etrans:v:20:y:2012:i:4:p:705-743
    DOI: j.1468-0351.2012.00447.x
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    1. John Knight & Lina Song & Jia Huaibin, 1999. "Chinese rural migrants in urban enterprises: Three perspectives," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(3), pages 73-104.
    2. Lawrence J. Lau & Yingyi Qian & Gerard Roland, 2000. "Reform without Losers: An Interpretation of China's Dual-Track Approach to Transition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(1), pages 120-143, February.
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    4. Sarah Cook, 1999. "Surplus labour and productivity in Chinese agriculture: Evidence from household survey data," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(3), pages 16-44.
    5. Davidson, Russell & MacKinnon, James G., 1993. "Estimation and Inference in Econometrics," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195060119.
    6. Denise Hare, 1999. "'Push' versus 'pull' factors in migration outflows and returns: Determinants of migration status and spell duration among China's rural population," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(3), pages 45-72.
    7. William M. Dugger, 1996. "The Mechanisms of Governance," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 1212-1216, December.
    8. Zai Liang & Yiu Por Chen & Yanmin Gu, 2002. "Rural Industrialisation and Internal Migration in China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 39(12), pages 2175-2187, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Su, Yaqin & Tesfazion, Petros & Zhao, Zhong, 2018. "Where are the migrants from? Inter- vs. intra-provincial rural-urban migration in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 142-155.
    2. Alcaraz, Mar & García-Gil, Alejandro & Vázquez-Suñé, Enric & Velasco, Violeta, 2016. "Use rights markets for shallow geothermal energy management," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 34-46.
    3. Yiu Por (Vincent) Chen, 2016. "Fiscal Decentralization, Rural Industrialization and Undocumented Labour Mobility in Rural China, 1982–87," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(9), pages 1469-1482, September.
    4. Hangang Hu & Lisha Pan & Xin Jing & Guan Li & Yuefei Zhuo & Zhongguo Xu & Yang Chen & Xueqi Wang, 2022. "The Spatiotemporal Non-Stationary Effect of Industrial Agglomeration on Urban Land Use Efficiency: A Case Study of Yangtze River Delta, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-27, May.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J43 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Agricultural Labor Markets
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population
    • R52 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Land Use and Other Regulations
    • R58 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Regional Development Planning and Policy

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