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Farmland Transfer Participation and Rural Well-Being Inequality: Evidence from Rural China with the Capability Approach

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  • Wenjing Han

    (School of Government, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China)

  • Yang Fu

    (School of Government, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China)

  • Wen Sun

    (Department of Public & International Affairs, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China)

Abstract

Participation in the farmland transfer market provides farmers with diversified opportunities which would generate a range of social and economic benefits to improve their overall well-being. However, the previous studies have disproportionately focused on the income increase of farmers’ participation while ignoring its impact on other dimensions significantly contributing to the well-being gap of farmers with different social and economic characteristics. Based on the capability approach, this study constructed a multi-dimensional well-being assessment framework and employed the fuzzy method to evaluate the well-being level of rural households. By employing the national rural survey data from China, this paper examined the impact of farmland transfer participation on the well-being of farmers with different livelihoods. Further, it explored the influence of farmland transfer participation on the well-being gap of farmers by using the quantile regression method. Our results suggest that farmland transfer participation played a positive role in increasing farmers’ well-being, while farmland transfer participation has no significant impact on farmers’ well-being inequality. Meanwhile, the heterogeneity of farmers’ livelihoods is the key factor for the differentiation of farmers’ well-being.

Suggested Citation

  • Wenjing Han & Yang Fu & Wen Sun, 2023. "Farmland Transfer Participation and Rural Well-Being Inequality: Evidence from Rural China with the Capability Approach," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-21, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:7:p:1318-:d:1183872
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