IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeborg/v220y2024icp325-342.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Property rights, labor reallocation, and gender inequality in rural China

Author

Listed:
  • Shi, Xinjie
  • Huangfu, Bingyu
  • Jin, Songqing
  • Gao, Xuwen

Abstract

This study examines the gender-differentiated effects of improved land property rights on labor reallocation in China, using quasi-exogenous variation in the timing of the implementation of the Rural Land Contracting Law, which allows farmers to lease out their land. We find that while men and women tend to shift labor from the agricultural into non-agricultural sector following the land reform, women lag behind men. Our findings reveal a noticeable gender gap in the growth of off-farm labor participation (+16.69 % among men; + 1.95 % among women) and hours worked in off-farm sectors. The gender-differentiated effects on off-farm employment are likely caused by disadvantaged labor market conditions for women. These findings underscore the importance of improved land property rights in fostering rural structural transformation. Moreover, our results suggest that implementing land reforms without accompanying changes to address the root causes of gendered differences in off-farm employment could limit their full potential. This study has significant policy implications for the rural transformation of developing countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Shi, Xinjie & Huangfu, Bingyu & Jin, Songqing & Gao, Xuwen, 2024. "Property rights, labor reallocation, and gender inequality in rural China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 325-342.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:220:y:2024:i:c:p:325-342
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2024.02.020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268124000581
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jebo.2024.02.020?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gillian Paull, 2008. "Children and Women's Hours of Work," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(526), pages 8-27, February.
    2. Clément de Chaisemartin & Xavier D'Haultfœuille, 2020. "Two-Way Fixed Effects Estimators with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(9), pages 2964-2996, September.
    3. John Giles & Ren Mu, 2018. "Village Political Economy, Land Tenure Insecurity, and the Rural to Urban Migration Decision: Evidence from China," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 100(2), pages 521-544.
    4. Fitzenberger, Bernd & Sommerfeld, Katrin & Steffes, Susanne, 2013. "Causal effects on employment after first birth — A dynamic treatment approach," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 49-62.
    5. Wang, Xiaxin & Shen, Yan, 2014. "The effect of China's agricultural tax abolition on rural families' incomes and production," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 185-199.
    6. Restuccia, Diego & Yang, Dennis Tao & Zhu, Xiaodong, 2008. "Agriculture and aggregate productivity: A quantitative cross-country analysis," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 234-250, March.
    7. Martin Halla & Julia Schmieder & Andrea Weber, 2020. "Job Displacement, Family Dynamics, and Spousal Labor Supply," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 253-287, October.
    8. Chang, Hongqin & Dong, Xiao-yuan & MacPhail, Fiona, 2011. "Labor Migration and Time Use Patterns of the Left-behind Children and Elderly in Rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 2199-2210.
    9. Claudia Olivetti & Barbara Petrongolo, 2016. "The Evolution of Gender Gaps in Industrialized Countries," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 8(1), pages 405-434, October.
    10. Stephen B. Jarrell & T. D. Stanley, 2004. "Declining Bias and Gender Wage Discrimination? A Meta-Regression Analysis," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(3).
    11. Deininger, Klaus & Xia, Fang & Kilic, Talip & Moylan, Heather, 2021. "Investment impacts of gendered land rights in customary tenure systems: Substantive and methodological insights from Malawi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    12. Henrik Kleven & Camille Landais & Jakob Egholt Søgaard, 2019. "Children and Gender Inequality: Evidence from Denmark," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 181-209, October.
    13. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2017. "The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(3), pages 789-865, September.
    14. Barbara Biasi & Heather Sarsons, 2022. "Flexible Wages, Bargaining, and the Gender Gap," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 137(1), pages 215-266.
    15. David Card & Ana Rute Cardoso & Patrick Kline, 2016. "Bargaining, Sorting, and the Gender Wage Gap: Quantifying the Impact of Firms on the Relative Pay of Women," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(2), pages 633-686.
    16. Marianne Bertrand & Emir Kamenica & Jessica Pan, 2015. "Gender Identity and Relative Income within Households," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(2), pages 571-614.
    17. Claudia Olivetti & Barbara Petrongolo, 2014. "Gender gaps across countries and skills: Demand, supply and the industry structure," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 17(4), pages 842-859, October.
    18. Brown, Philip H. & Park, Albert, 2002. "Education and poverty in rural China," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 523-541, December.
    19. repec:oup:qjecon:v:129:y:2014:i:2:p:939-993. is not listed on IDEAS
    20. David Roodman & James G. MacKinnon & Morten Ørregaard Nielsen & Matthew D. Webb, 2019. "Fast and wild: Bootstrap inference in Stata using boottest," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 19(1), pages 4-60, March.
    21. Wolfgang Keller & Hale Utar, 2022. "Globalization, Gender, and the Family," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(6), pages 3381-3409.
    22. Deininger, Klaus & Jin, Songqing, 2009. "Securing property rights in transition: Lessons from implementation of China's rural land contracting law," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(1-2), pages 22-38, May.
    23. Xinjie Shi, 2022. "Moving out but not for the better: Health consequences of interprovincial rural‐urban migration in China," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 555-573, April.
    24. Alain de Janvry & Kyle Emerick & Marco Gonzalez-Navarro & Elisabeth Sadoulet, 2015. "Delinking Land Rights from Land Use: Certification and Migration in Mexico," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(10), pages 3125-3149, October.
    25. Cheng, Wenli & Xu, Yuyun & Zhou, Nan & He, Zaizhong & Zhang, Longyao, 2019. "How did land titling affect China’s rural land rental market? Size, composition and efficiency," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 609-619.
    26. Marianne Bertrand & Claudia Goldin & Lawrence F. Katz, 2010. "Dynamics of the Gender Gap for Young Professionals in the Financial and Corporate Sectors," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(3), pages 228-255, July.
    27. Margaret Maurer-Fazio & Rachel Connelly & Lan Chen & Lixin Tang, 2011. "Childcare, Eldercare, and Labor Force Participation of Married Women in Urban China, 1982–2000," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 46(2), pages 261-294.
    28. Gaurav Khanna & Wenquan Liang & Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak & Ran Song, 2021. "The Productivity Consequences of Pollution-Induced Migration in China," NBER Working Papers 28401, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    29. Gillian Paull, 2008. "Children and Women's Hours of Work," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(526), pages 8-27, February.
    30. Roy, Sanchari, 2015. "Empowering women? Inheritance rights, female education and dowry payments in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 233-251.
    31. Patricia Cortés & Jessica Pan & Laura Pilossoph & Ernesto Reuben & Basit Zafar, 2023. "Gender Differences in Job Search and the Earnings Gap: Evidence from the Field and Lab," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 138(4), pages 2069-2126.
    32. Patricia Cortés & Jessica Pan, 2020. "Children and the Remaining Gender Gaps in the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 27980, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    33. Amalavoyal Chari & Elaine M Liu & Shing-Yi Wang & Yongxiang Wang, 2021. "Property Rights, Land Misallocation, and Agricultural Efficiency in China [Misallocation, Selection and Productivity: A Quantitative Analysis with Panel Data from China]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(4), pages 1831-1862.
    34. Henrik Kleven & Camille Landais, 2017. "Gender Inequality and Economic Development: Fertility, Education and Norms," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 84(334), pages 180-209, April.
    35. Bilge Erten & Jessica Leight, 2021. "Exporting Out of Agriculture: The Impact of WTO Accession on Structural Transformation in China," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 103(2), pages 364-380, May.
    36. Natalia Zinovyeva & Maryna Tverdostup, 2021. "Gender Identity, Coworking Spouses, and Relative Income within Households," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 258-284, October.
    37. François Gerard & Lorenzo Lagos & Edson Severnini & David Card, 2021. "Assortative Matching or Exclusionary Hiring? The Impact of Employment and Pay Policies on Racial Wage Differences in Brazil," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(10), pages 3418-3457, October.
    38. Chernina, Eugenia & Castañeda Dower, Paul & Markevich, Andrei, 2014. "Property rights, land liquidity, and internal migration," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 191-215.
    39. Claudia Olivetti & Barbara Petrongolo, 2016. "The Evolution of Gender Gaps in Industrialized Countries," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 8(1), pages 405-434, October.
    40. Douglas Almond & Hongbin Li & Shuang Zhang, 2019. "Land Reform and Sex Selection in China," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(2), pages 560-585.
    41. Claudia Goldin, 2014. "A Grand Gender Convergence: Its Last Chapter," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(4), pages 1091-1119, April.
    42. Isaac Sorkin, 2017. "The Role of Firms in Gender Earnings Inequality: Evidence from the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 384-387, May.
    43. Rachel Murphy & Ran Tao & Xi Lu, 2011. "Son Preference in Rural China: Patrilineal Families and Socioeconomic Change," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 37(4), pages 665-690, December.
    44. Mark M. Pitt & Mark R. Rosenzweig & Mohammad Nazmul Hassan, 2012. "Human Capital Investment and the Gender Division of Labor in a Brawn-Based Economy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(7), pages 3531-3560, December.
    45. Teresa Molina, 2021. "Pollution, Ability, and Gender-Specific Investment Responses to Shocks," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(1), pages 580-619.
    46. Uta Schönberg & Johannes Ludsteck, 2014. "Expansions in Maternity Leave Coverage and Mothers' Labor Market Outcomes after Childbirth," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 32(3), pages 469-505.
    47. Denise Hare & Li Yang & Daniel Englander, 2007. "Land management in rural China and its gender implications," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3-4), pages 35-61.
    48. Douglas Gollin & David Lagakos & Michael E. Waugh, 2014. "The Agricultural Productivity Gap," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(2), pages 939-993.
    49. Chen, Shawn Xiaoguang, 2017. "The effect of a fiscal squeeze on tax enforcement: Evidence from a natural experiment in China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 62-76.
    50. Ye, Bing & Zhao, Yucong, 2018. "Women hold up half the sky? Gender identity and the wife's labor market performance in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 116-141.
    51. Li, Pei & Lu, Yi & Wang, Jin, 2016. "Does flattening government improve economic performance? Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 18-37.
    52. Cortes, Patricia & Pan, Jessica, 2020. "Children and the Remaining Gender Gaps in the Labor Market," IZA Discussion Papers 13759, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    53. Xuwen Gao & Ran Song & Christopher Timmins, 2022. "The Fertility Consequences of Air Pollution in China," NBER Working Papers 30165, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hongbin Liu & Hebin Zhang & Yuxuan Xu & Ying Xue, 2024. "Decision-Making Mechanism of Farmers in Land Transfer Processes Based on Sustainable Livelihood Analysis Framework: A Study in Rural China," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-21, May.
    2. Long Qian & Lixian Liu & Hongbo Liu & Xinjie Shi, 2024. "How does Migration Impact Individuals’ Public Safety Perceptions? Evidence from China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 174(2), pages 503-524, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:ags:aaea22:335534 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Henrik Kleven & Camille Landais & Jakob Egholt Søgaard, 2019. "Children and Gender Inequality: Evidence from Denmark," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 181-209, October.
    3. Jessen, Jonas, 2022. "Culture, children and couple gender inequality," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    4. Keller, Wolfgang & Molina, Teresa & Olney, William W., 2023. "The gender gap among top business executives," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 270-286.
    5. Henrik Kleven & Camille Landais & Johanna Posch & Andreas Steinhauer & Josef Zweimüller, 2024. "Do Family Policies Reduce Gender Inequality? Evidence from 60 Years of Policy Experimentation," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 16(2), pages 110-149, May.
    6. Cemal Eren Arbatlı & Quamrul H. Ashraf & Oded Galor & Marc Klemp, 2020. "Diversity and Conflict," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(2), pages 727-797, March.
    7. Petrongolo, Barbara & Ronchi, Maddalena, 2020. "Gender gaps and the structure of local labor markets," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    8. Elisabeth Grewenig & Philipp Lergetporer & Katharina Werner, 2020. "Gender Norms and Labor-Supply Expectations: Experimental Evidence from Adolescents," CESifo Working Paper Series 8611, CESifo.
    9. Sandner, Malte & Yükselen, Ipek, 2024. "Unraveling the Gender Wage Gap: Exploring Early Career Patterns among University Graduates," IZA Discussion Papers 17293, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Riccardo Leoncini & Mariele Macaluso & Annalivia Polselli, 2024. "Gender segregation: analysis across sectoral dominance in the UK labour market," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 67(5), pages 2289-2343, November.
    11. Barigozzi, Francesca & Cremer, Helmuth & Roeder, Kerstin, 2020. "Having it all, for all: Child-care subsidies and income distribution reconciled," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 188-211.
    12. Nieto, Adrián, 2021. "Native-immigrant differences in the effect of children on the gender pay gap," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 654-680.
    13. Henrik Kleven & Camille Landais, 2017. "Gender Inequality and Economic Development: Fertility, Education and Norms," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 84(334), pages 180-209, April.
    14. Cremer, Helmuth & Barigozzi, Francesca & Monfardini, Chiara, 2019. "The gender gap in informal child care: theory and some evidence from Italy," CEPR Discussion Papers 13782, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Barigozzi, Francesca & Cremer, Helmuth & Roeder, Kerstin, 2018. "Women's career choices, social norms and child care policies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 162-173.
    16. Popov, Alexander, 2022. "The division of spoils in a booming industry," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 341-369.
    17. Jiang Li & Benoit Dostie & Gäelle Simard-Duplain, 2020. "What is the Role of Firm-Specific Pay Policies on the Gender Earnings Gap in Canada?," CIRANO Working Papers 2020s-67, CIRANO.
    18. Itzik Fadlon & Frederik Plesner Lyngse & Torben Heien Nielsen, 2022. "Early Career Setbacks and Women’s Career-Family Trade-Off," CEBI working paper series 22-06, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. The Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI).
    19. Cremer, Helmuth & Barigozzi, Francesca & Monfardini, Chiara, 2019. "The gender gap in informal child care: theory and some evidence from Italy," CEPR Discussion Papers 13782, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Pierre-Jean Messe & Jeremy Tanguy, 2022. "Does gender equality bargaining reduce child penalty? Evidence from France," TEPP Working Paper 2022-19, TEPP.
    21. Julian V Johnsen & Hyejin Ku & Kjell G Salvanes, 2024. "Competition and Career Advancement," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 91(5), pages 2954-2980.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Property right; Labor reallocation; Gender inequality; Rural China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment
    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:220:y:2024:i:c:p:325-342. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jebo .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.