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Land Retirement and Nonfarm Labor Market Participation: An Analysis of China’s Sloping Land Conversion Program

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  • Kelly, Peter
  • Huo, Xuexi

Abstract

China’s Sloping Land Conversion Program pays more than 32 million households to plant trees on highly erodible cropland, and has effected major land-use changes. Farmers retire land indefinitely but receive time-limited subsidies, after which they, in principle, enter nonfarm employment. We analyze annual data we collected on over 3,000 individuals and plots from 1998–2006, which contain variation in enrollment timing and alternative measures of enrollment, and conclude enrollment has a small but significant and robust positive effect on nonfarm employment. It arises not from alleviating constraints, as recent papers have suggested, but rather from simple farm to nonfarm labor substitution.

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  • Kelly, Peter & Huo, Xuexi, 2013. "Land Retirement and Nonfarm Labor Market Participation: An Analysis of China’s Sloping Land Conversion Program," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 156-169.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:48:y:2013:i:c:p:156-169
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.04.002
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    Cited by:

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    5. Li Li & Atsushi Tsunekawa & Yangshangyu Zuo & Atsushi Koike, 2019. "Conservation Payments and Technical Efficiency of farm Households Participating in the Grain for Green Program on the Loess Plateau of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-16, August.
    6. Zhang, Qi & Bilsborrow, Richard E. & Song, Conghe & Tao, Shiqi & Huang, Qingfeng, 2019. "Rural household income distribution and inequality in China: Effects of payments for ecosystem services policies and other factors," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 114-127.
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    9. Zhipeng Huang & Yan Zhang & Yi Huang & Gang Xu & Shengping Shang, 2022. "Sales Scale, Non-Pastoral Employment and Herders’ Technology Adoption: Evidence from Pastoral China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-13, July.
    10. Giefer, Madeline M. & An, Li, 2022. "Divergent impacts of the grain to green program, landholdings, and demographic factors on livelihood diversification in rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    11. Liu, Zhen & Lan, Jing, 2015. "The Sloping Land Conversion Program in China: Effect on the Livelihood Diversification of Rural Households," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 147-161.
    12. Rong Zhao & Tianyu Jia & He Li, 2023. "Could the Sloping Land Conversion Program Promote Farmers’ Income in Rocky Desertification Areas?—Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-15, June.
    13. Zinda, John Aloysius & Zhang, Zhiming, 2019. "Explaining heterogeneous afforestation outcomes: How community officials and households mediate tree cover change in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 385-398.
    14. Lu, Gang & Yin, Runsheng, 2020. "Evaluating the Evaluated Socioeconomic Impacts of China's Sloping Land Conversion Program," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    15. Cheng Chen & Hannes J. König & Bettina Matzdorf & Lin Zhen, 2015. "The Institutional Challenges of Payment for Ecosystem Service Program in China: A Review of the Effectiveness and Implementation of Sloping Land Conversion Program," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(5), pages 1-28, May.
    16. Lunyu Xie & Bohan Zeng & Li Jiang & Jintao Xu, 2018. "Conservation Payments, Off-Farm Labor, and Ethnic Minorities: Participation and Impact of the Grain for Green Program in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-18, April.
    17. Wang, Ying & Zhang, Qi & Bilsborrow, Richard & Tao, Shiqi & Chen, Xiaodong & Sullivan-Wiley, Kira & Huang, Qingfeng & Li, Jiangfeng & Song, Conghe, 2020. "Effects of payments for ecosystem services programs in China on rural household labor allocation and land use: Identifying complex pathways," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    18. Zhang, Qi & Wang, Ying & Tao, Shiqi & Bilsborrow, Richard E. & Qiu, Tong & Liu, Chong & Sannigrahi, Srikanta & Li, Qirui & Song, Conghe, 2020. "Divergent socioeconomic-ecological outcomes of China’s conversion of cropland to forest program in the subtropical mountainous area and the semi-arid Loess Plateau," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).

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