Promoting return migrant workers' entrepreneurship constitutes a critical policy instrument for economic development in developing economies. Employed business registry and accounting data (2000–2022), this paper examines the impact of Migrant Workers' Return Entrepreneurship Support Policy (MRESP) on county-level entrepreneurship in China. Our results indicate that the MRESP implementation significantly increases new enterprise formation, with effects most pronounced in the service sector. We find that the channels of this policy impact are land supply, financial services, and tax relief support. Further analysis reveals unintended consequences on entrepreneurial quality. The MRESP demonstrates a significant negative correlation with business survival rates, particularly acute in service and industrial sectors, which highlight a tension between quantitative expansion and qualitative sustainability. Crucially, policy synergy analysis demonstrates that coordinated implementation with High-speed Rail Construction, Innovative City Construction and New Urbanization Construction, effectively mitigates these adverse effects of the MRESP.

Avner Greif proposes in The Great Divergence that the historical divergence in the Western world originated from the breakthrough of personalized transactions in medieval trade to achieve-large-scale market expansion, with the key lying in universal property right protection. We refer to this as the “Greif Hypothesis” but it lacks micro-level empirical testing. Taking the development of rural land rental markets in China as an example, we examine the impact of the land right confirmation policy on market structure transformation and find that land right confirmation increases the probability of formal rent by 4%, reduces the probability of informal rent by 1.3%, and promotes the expansion of the rental market. Moreover, formal and informal markets are not interconnected or progressive but rather show a reciprocal relationship of growth and decline.

Despite the implementation of a straw-burning prohibition in 1999, widespread straw burning has still persisted in rural areas over the past two decades. However, there has been little research on the role informal institutions play in this issue. Drawing on village-level data from the 2015 to 2023 China Household Finance Survey, this paper aims to examine the interaction between clans, the most important form of informal institutions in rural China and straw burning. The estimated results show that clans have a facilitating effect on village-level straw burning, though this effect is weakened to some extent when the straw-burning prohibition policy is introduced. Mechanism analysis reveals that the influence of clans on straw burning is notably stronger when clan members hold leadership positions within the village. Larger village populations and higher rates of non-grain farming further amplify this effect. Further analysis indicates that the presence of multiple clans within a village also contributes to increased straw burning. Our findings suggest that the effectiveness of straw-burning policies reflects the broader interplay between formal and informal institutions, highlighting the need to consider the influence of informal institutions when enforcing such policies.

PurposeThis paper develops a framework from the information-based adoption decision perspective and studies the impact of farmers' interaction within online village-affair communities (IOVCs) on their straw return behavior (SRB). It examines the mechanism of technological perception and discusses whether its effect differs between different levels of mechanization or degrees of pests and diseases.Design/methodology/approachUsing micro-survey data from the 2020 China Rural Revitalization Survey on farmers in 10 provinces in China, this paper estimates the relationship between IOVCs and farmers' SRB; analyses the mechanical role of technological perception. In addition, the paper explores the "technological boundaries" of farmers' SRB caused by different levels of mechanization and degrees of pests and diseases.FindingsOur empirical results show that farmers' IOVCs significantly promote their SRB via the core mechanism of technology perception. Furthermore, considering technological boundaries, farmers with high level of mechanization or in regions with low degree of pests and diseases are more likely to be involved in SRB.Originality/valueDigital information of technology or social interactions can promote farmers' SRB. However, the effect of IOVCs on SRB has been under-analyzed. This paper provides novel insight into the interplay between rural digital governance and sustainable technology adoption in middle-income and low-income countries. It emphasizes that, to encourage farmers' SRB and improving soil fertility with digital governance, the government needs to continue strengthening rural digital infrastructure, using digital social media to carry out training activities or extensions about straw return, and promoting mechanized services for agricultural production.

This study evaluates the economic performance of China's East-West pairing-off poverty alleviation, a policy enacted in 2016 aiming to eradicate absolute poverty by 2020 through substantial fiscal transfers from the assisting cities to the assisted impoverished counties. Employing a counterfactual framework and analyzing data from 2013 to 2018, this research assesses the economic performance of China's East-West pairing-off poverty alleviation. Our findings reveal a negative impact of the fiscal pressure burdened by the assisting cities on their economic performance. Meanwhile, the allocation of anti-poverty funds to the assisted counties does not exhibit a significant impact on their economic outcomes. The mechanism analysis suggests that the fiscal pressure experienced by the assisting cities shows negative impacts on fixed assets investment, innovation activities, and economic growth expectations. Further analysis indicates a negative relationship between the policy and the growth of secondary industry and rural income in the eastern regions, while simultaneously identifying a positive impact on the enterprises' financial burden. These results underscore the complex economic trade-offs inherent in poverty alleviation strategy transferring fiscal funds from developed regions to less developed regions and call for a global understanding of pure cash transfer programmes' impacts.

The rent-free farmland transfer that exists widely in China’s rural areas is a topic worthy of attention. Particularly, the regional heterogeneity of its occurrences implies regional cultural heterogeneities. Using local dialects to proxy regional cultural features, this study applies econometric methods to examine the impacts of dialect diversity on rent-free farmland transfers. It also considers possible mechanisms through a mediation analysis, based on a combined two-year rural household survey dataset from the Guangdong and Jiangxi Provinces in 2015 and 2016. Robust estimation results reveal that dialect diversity increases the probability of rent-free farmland transfers at the household and village levels. According to the mediation analysis, dialect diversity influences villages’ farmland abandonment, rural farmland market development, and the flexibility of farmland transfer contracts, which further affects rent-free farmland transfer. Rent-free farmland transfer depends on social trust and contracts’ self-fulfilling advantages. Therefore, cultural and traditional factors should be taken into consideration, which would form beneficial interactions between the selections of rural farmland institutional arrangement and land rights policy implementations.

As one form of informal institutions, clans have played a significant role in driving Chinese socioeconomic development. However, there is currently no consensus on how clans are correlated with social instability in rural areas. This paper aims to explore the correlations between clans and social instability, utilizing village-level data from the 2015–2021 China Household Finance Survey. The findings reveal a positive correlation between clans and social instability in rural areas. Notably, this relationship follows an inverted U-shaped pattern when considering political distance. Mechanism analysis suggests that clans are accompanies by more social disputes and conflicts of interest in intermediate zones compared to areas located farther away or closer to the local political center. Further analysis indicates that both the decrease in legal governance and the increase in potential interests aggravate the negative correlation between clans and social stability. Additionally, it is observed that implementing the “yi jian tiao” policy in grassroots governance can help mitigate the social contradictions caused by clans and brings positive influence, but the existence of multiple clans is positively correlated with social instability. Our analysis implies that more attention should be focused on the intermediate zones, where an enormous number of conflicts between formal and informal institutions exist.

Worldwide, most farms are small and family-operated. This study discusses the future of smallholder agriculture in China, where most farms are small, and farms' parcels are fragmented. The study puts forward a framework of vertical division of labor and specialized production in agriculture. We posit that hiring machinery services could be a pathway to connect smallholders with modern agriculture and achieve food security in China. Using household-level data from China, this study examines the impact of hiring machinery services on farm productivity, food security, and rural households' welfare. Findings show that mechanization services increased rural Chinese families' food security and agricultural productivity. Hiring machinery services improves smallholders' income by influencing the input efficiency of maize production. At the same time, increased mechanization implied greater participation in off-farm work. In other words, more family labor and time are allocated to off-farm work, which results in higher total income and increased consumption expenditures. Our findings highlight the importance of technology to improve smallholder agriculture and food security, not only in China but also in other South and Southeast Asian countries.

In 2013, China launched her targeted poverty alleviation, and a large amount of fiscal anti-poverty funds have been invested. However, whether the enormous fiscal anti-poverty funds have had a positive impact on the local economy has been ambiguous. This study investigates the impact of fiscal anti-poverty funds on local economic growth, drawing on Chinese fiscal data at the county level. Our results indicate that fiscal anti-poverty funds are not conducive to local economic growth. Further analysis reveals that anti-poverty funds reduce fiscal support for the service industry, manufacturing industry, enterprise development, and technical innovation. This is because impoverished counties are forced to supply extra fiscal anti-poverty funds, which leads to compression of fiscal expenditures in other areas due to local deficient finance.

种业振兴对保障国家粮食安全具有重要的战略意义.推进中国种业振兴以确保粮食安全,必须坚持大国土观与大食物观,在动态发展格局下解决种业的"卡脖子"问题,在协同发展思路下重视种业振兴的必要匹配条件,在国际竞争与合作视野下拓展种业振兴的发展空间.本文从粮食安全决定因素及其优先序的角度揭示了种业振兴的基础性、关键性与决定性作用;在此基础上,回顾中国种业发展的历程,厘清了种业振兴与粮食安全的关系;在新的粮食安全格局下,解析大食物观下种业振兴的内涵与面临的挑战,对未来中国种业振兴的健康良序发展进行展望并提出对策建议.

地权制度如何影响生育决策?雷州半岛同时存在的承包地和祖宗地制度为观察不同地权制度安排对农户生育行为的激励差异提供了一个极好的准自然试验.本文基于农户问卷数据,采用OLS和2SLS方法研究发现:祖宗地村庄农户的生育行为较低,并随着村庄祖宗地占比的增加,农户家庭新增人口数量会减少;农地调整发生次数的增加则会提高农户生育行为的激励.机制检验表明,地权制度对人口增长的影响与产权稳定性紧密关联.在农地调整下,较多的家庭人口意味着可以获得更多的土地,从而生育行为成为农户获得更多土地的重要策略.

Agricultural modernization is an important component of and key fulcrum to realize Chinese modernization. However, China’s agricultural modernization faces multi-dimensional challenges due to its resource endowments characterized by large population and limited farmland, the agricultural management pattern dominated by small households, and the uncertainties of international relations and trade pattern. Therefore, China must, based on its national conditions and agricultural conditions, respect the particulars of agricultural industry and rural areas, and pursue the main goals of ensuring supply, improving quality, promoting income, strengthening R＆D, and implementing green production. It also needs to develop agricultural service scale operation through agricultural division of labor and specialized operation with the highlight of agricultural trusteeship, and take the road of “service-oriented agriculture” with Chinese characteristics, so as to promote the fundamental change of agricultural development from breaking the scale constraint to promoting the deepening of division of labor. The core strategies lie in building a modern agricultural management system based on the integrated development of urban and rural areas in the county, and promoting the inherent connection between small farmers and modern agriculture.

"稻米理论"基于我国"南稻北麦"的种植格局,对南方集体主义文化之下的特殊信任和北方个人主义文化之下的一般信任的形成根源进行了理论阐释.但现实证据表明,中国南北村庄的信任模式正在发生重要转换,即北方的特殊信任高于南方,南方呈现出更为明显的一般信任,从而出现了"Talhelm悖论".南北市场化发育程度的差异及其对传统村落原生秩序的冲击,可能是形成"Talhelm悖论"的重要原因.研究结果表明:(1)"南稻北麦"的种植文化虽然在信任的塑造中有着重要影响,但市场化发育程度在种植类型与信任的关系转换中发挥着关键的调节作用,市场发育弱化了种植文化对信任的影响,从而导致了南北方信任格局的反差与转变;(2)机理分析表明,市场化发育一方面冲击着村社传统耕作方式所决定的互助协作关系,另一方面通过活跃并畅通农村要素市场,弱化了种植文化对信任的内生性影响.本文强调,由"南稻北麦"种植方式所镌刻的文化遗产及其村庄信任格局,正在发生重要的解构与转型.

"大国小农"是中国农业经营的基本格局.如何在传统农业改造中提升农民的人力资本,促进小农户走向规模化经营,实现小农户与现代农业发展的有机衔接,是中国式农业现代化转型的核心命题.农民工回流形成的人力资本补偿与经营方式转型,对于助推中国农业现代化及其高质量发展具有重要的现实意义.本文利用中国劳动力动态调查(CLDS)2016年和2018年两期数据,考察农民工回流对农户农地转入及其规模化经营的影响.研究发现,相比于留守农户,回流务农农户具有更强的农地转入需求,且农地经营规模更大;机制分析表明,回流农民工通过机械替代劳动力和农业生产性贷款,促进了农地经营规模的扩大;不同类型的回流农民工对农户的规模化经营具有差异性影响,其中主动回流、近期回流以及主业务农的回流农民工更有助于农户农地经营规模的扩大;另外,在地权稳定与农机服务供给完善的村庄情景下,农民工回流能发挥更大的农地经营规模扩大效应.文章认为,在诸多的小农户中,有过迁移经历的农民工回流务农农户能自发地走向规模化经营,是小农户与现代农业发展有机衔接的可动员的基础性力量.

加快建设农业强国是推进中国式现代化的重要基础和关键支撑.从农业大国到农业强国,必须突破大而不强、多而不优、量大质弱等突出短板以及大国小农、人口压力、资源有限等关键约束,从大安全观、大食物观、大国土观、大产业观、大韧性观着手谋划基本战略,才能建成供给保障强、科技装备强、经营体系强、产业韧性强、竞争能力强的农业强国.

村庄社会农户之间的利益目标具有统一性和冲突性两个方面,地权状态的变化能够改变农民之间的利益目标进而影响村庄社会的互助机制.结合CLDS2014年和2016年两期数据进行实证分析,研究发现:(1)地权明晰能够显著改善村庄社会农民间的人际关系,已确权农户的邻里互助程度显著高于未确权农户,相反,农地调整所导致的地权模糊性会降低农民之间的互助水平.(2)村庄村小组越多,姓氏个数越多,则村庄社会的互助水平越低,而地权明晰则能够改善社会关系复杂村庄中的邻里互助;第一大宗族农户占比越高,则村庄社会互助程度越高,地权明晰反而降低了农民总体的互助水平.(3)进一步地研究表明,农地确权并不会显著改变村庄社会农民收入和土地分配的不平等程度,并且在考虑上述两类不平等因素之后,农地确权对农民之间互助水平的影响依旧稳健.文章强调,尽管地权明晰因降低宗族内部目标的统一性而弱化了其互助水平,但却因化解不同农民之间利益的冲突性而提高了一般农户的互助水平.农地确权有可能诱导村庄社会差序格局的重要转型.

技术进步与制度变迁的关联历来是常论常新的重要话题.其中,非正式制度因极具黏性而被认为是科技进步及转型所难以推动之重.科技兴农已经成为引领中国现代农业发展的基本理念.理解农业技术进步对中国传统村社基本秩序的影响,将为解理技术进步与非正式制度变迁的内在机理提供极具价值的研究样本.文章利用中国农村家庭追踪调查数据(CRHPS)的估计结果表明,农业技术进步将"撕裂"村落传统的关系格局和人情网络,冲击村庄非正式制度,进而改造村庄社会形态.机理检验证明,农业技术进步将会解构村社内部的生产互助体系,弱化村社成员社会交往密度,从而瓦解传统村社结构中的集体行动秩序.进一步证据表明,尽管地权制度、文化基因和风险规避是乡土中国村社形态长期存续的重要因素,但农业技术进步带来程度不同的转型冲击及影响.文章强调,农业技术进步是一把"双刃剑",一方面,科技进步驱动农业及其经营方式的革新与转型,引领农业生产标准化与高效化,促进农村开放化与现代化;另一方面,技术要素也正在冲击中国农村的非正式制度,瓦解村落传统的关系秩序,改造并重构村庄社会基本形态.

地权稳定性与农村劳动力非农就业之间的关系受到学界关注,但是,已有研究并未得出一致的结论.本文利用广东省雷州市祖宗地现象的微观调查数据,实证分析了地权稳定性对农村劳动力非农就业的影响.研究发现:以土地调整频次低和地块持有期限长为特征的祖宗地,相较于普遍的家庭承包地,所引致的农村劳动力非农就业比例更高,且该结果在考虑内生性问题后依然稳健.这意味着,祖宗地现象为稳定地权促进农村劳动力非农就业的经典命题提供了新证据.基于此,在现有农村土地"三权分置"下,进一步稳定农村土地承包关系和加强农户土地承包经营权保护,对保持和有序推动农村劳动力非农就业具有重要意义.