Investigation on why the practice of rural residence land exchange is different under development driven condition and disaster induced condition

Abstract

It is increasingly appreciated that concentrated settlement is an effective means to reduce land for residence and improve the effectiveness, which contributes to the mission of sustainable development. In China, the policy of rural residence land exchange is used as a measure to advocate concentrated rural settlement and promote new countryside construction. However, it is found that, under the development driven condition (DDC), the government usually pushes forward or forcibly implement this policy while the farmers are reluctant to accept this. By contrast, Dujiangyan, in the disaster induced condition (DIC), adopted this policy to raise funds for post-disaster reconstruction, which is accepted by the rural victims and gained great success. Therefore, the contrasted phenomenon inspires us to explore why the practices between the two conditions are different. Game theory was employed to explain the difference and three critical reasons were identified. The findings provide valuable reference for the practice of rural residence land exchange under DDC.