Equal entitlement versus tenure security under a regime of collective property rights: Peasants' preference for institutions in post-reform chinese agriculture

Abstract

The results of a survey of farmers' attitudes in four predominantly agricultural counties in China contradict the allegation that the frequent adjustments of farmholdings among peasant families or insecure tenure have undermined their incentive to invest in staple crop production. In those regions where few off-farm employment opportunities exist to reduce peasants′ dependence on land, there is an implicit consensus among farm households that readjusting holdings is an acceptable institutional practice. Low farmgate prices and large procurement quotas for the staple crops, alongside other state measures employed to restrict peasants′ production and marketing freedom, may have impacted more negatively on farm investments. J. Comp. Econom., August 1995, 21(1), pp. 82-111. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong. © 1995 Academic Press, Inc.