The Impact of Land Property Right on China’s Rural-urban Migration

Abstract

The land system in China, which features collective ownership by farmers and family contract farming and Household Responsibility System, has improved land utilization efficiency, but also brought about risks of land transfer and expropriation. Although the household production responsibility system has promoted agricultural development, land insecurity and expropriation issues still affect rural families' migration decisions. This paper studies the impact of market mechanisms (well-protected land property rights) and government mechanisms (poorly protected land property rights) on migration. I use Probit model to identify whether rent behavior and land appropriation have impacts on migration.