IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/caerpp/caer-03-2015-0030.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Income implications of political capital and agricultural land use in western China

Author

Listed:
  • Adam M. Komarek
  • Max Spoor
  • Shuyi Feng
  • Xiaoping Shi

Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the expansion of agricultural production into marginal lands, also known as “wasteland,” and examine the association between political capital, household income, and using additional marginal lands for agriculture in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of western China. Design/methodology/approach - The paper uses exploratory data analyses methods, including descriptive statistics, graphical analysis, econometrics and propensity score matching, and data from a 2008 survey of 342 households in Awat County of Aksu Prefecture to explore the role of political capital in an agricultural household setting. Findings - Preliminary results suggest that wasteland usage has a positive association with income, and that household political capital, in the form of Communist Party membership or being a village cadre, correlates with wasteland usage because it improves access to irrigation water. Originality/value - A constant topic of debate in China is the role of political capital in influencing livelihoods. The authors aim to add modest insights into this debate and provide a starting point to foster additional debates regarding the role of political capital, rural livelihoods, and natural resource usage.

Suggested Citation

  • Adam M. Komarek & Max Spoor & Shuyi Feng & Xiaoping Shi, 2017. "Income implications of political capital and agricultural land use in western China," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 9(1), pages 93-110, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:eme:caerpp:caer-03-2015-0030
    DOI: 10.1108/CAER-03-2015-0030
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/CAER-03-2015-0030/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/CAER-03-2015-0030/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/CAER-03-2015-0030?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.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Xiaoqing Dai & Lijie Pu & Fangping Rao, 2017. "Assessing the Effect of a Crop-Tree Intercropping Program on Smallholders’ Incomes in Rural Xinjiang, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-19, August.
    2. Tingqiu Cao & Xianhang Qian, 2021. "Political Capital and Household Income: Evidence from Twenty-Four Transition Countries," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 151-165, March.

    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:eme:caerpp:caer-03-2015-0030. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.