Entrepreneurial talent is a key driver of modern economic growth. However, when individuals with entrepreneurial capabilities preferred to preserve their wealth in land, as was typical in preindustrial societies, rather than invest in reproducible capital, structural transformation would stall due to talent misallocation. In this context, land reforms restricting private landholdings can stimulate structural change by redirecting entrepreneurial talent toward modern sectors. Drawing on shifts in land tenure systems in modern China and individual life-span data, we found that before the mid-twentieth-century land reform, landlord families worked significantly less and showed limited interest in nonagricultural activities, despite their inherent entrepreneurial advantage. However, after the introduction of the household responsibility system in the late 1970s, which allowed rural residents the freedom to choose their occupations within an egalitarian land tenure system, landlord descendants were more likely to establish modern enterprises than other rural groups. Furthermore, landlord descendants primarily benefited from family mentoring rather than financial support when starting businesses, underscoring the intergenerational transmission of entrepreneurial talent.

This chapter sorts out the policy evolution and characteristics of the circulation of rural land contract management rights. Using relevant data and case analysis, this chapter analyses land circulation since implementation of the Law on Land Contracts in Rural Areas, summarizes land circulation status and issues in 2007, and points out several policy issues in land circulation and scale management. This chapter discovers that farm households' land subcontracting and management rights were developing in a material rights direction. Most rural land transfer was still spontaneous, but local governments and collective economic organizations tended increasingly to intervene in it, and the number and scale of land contracted by owners and enterprises was increasing. Factors affecting the market-oriented circulation of rural land still existed.

Along with the extraordinary course of China's reform over the past 40 years, China's land system reform has also experienced its ups and downs in terms of criticism. While the unique arrangement and reform of the land system created the "Chinese miracle", it also created an excessive dependence on land for the operation of the national economy, wealth growth and distribution, and this has hindered economic transformation and structural reform. After China's economy enters a new stage, it is necessary to bid farewell to the land-driven development model and deepen the reform of the land system in such areas as rural contracted land, farmers' house sites, land conversion, and urban land use.

China's land system reforms have always been subject to two major kinds of constraint—a system constraint and a target constraint. By analyzing choice and change in land system, house site system, and rural land conversion system, it is concluded that it is time to reflect on the logic of the separation of the two rights and begin to do surgery on its roots. This will involve the following issues: (1) the reform of collective ownership, (2) the reform of the separate governance of the two ownership systems, (3) the reform of the land governance system, (4) the return of normality for the land issue.

This chapter is based on field research in several provinces and cities. The current land system launched high-speed economic growth, contributed to the formation of an expansionary growth mode, strengthened local governments' ability to intervene in the economy, and formed a structure in which land and local finance, investment, financial credit and real estate market development are closely linked. However, a huge game of interests arises from this, and a great number of dilemmas arise through the process of land expropriation. Deepening the reform of the land system, shifting the allocation of the important production factor of land from the government to the market, and establishing a long-term mechanism to ensure that land supports the sustainable development of the national economy—these are the fundamental solutions.

Transitioning from limited to open access societies drives economic development. This paper provides empirical insight into this institutional transformation by investigating early and high- Tang China (618–906). Based on a dataset comprising 1,272 marriages from 618 to 755, we find that Empress Wu’s rise to power, in 674, resulted in a positive effect on upward mobility. Men from common and poor clans who entered marriage after 674 were more likely to wed into elite clans and consequently became lineage elites. This surge in inter-class marriages primarily triggered by Empress Wu’s expansion of national civil examinations to strengthen her legitimacy, which increased the likelihood of men from common and poor clans succeeding in the exams. These knowledge elites leveraged their academic accomplishments to marry daughters from elite clans, leading to the convergence of lineage elites and knowledge elites. This paper, therefore, causally examines the rise of meritocracy, a classical form of an open access order that plays an important role in increasing social mobility.

Previous studies quantifying the relationship between land titles and agricultural productivity have not explored the role of human capital reallocation. This paper enhances existing literature by examining the effects of land titling on the reallocation of labor with heterogenous human capital endowments between agricultural and nonagricultural sectors. In reference to China's county-by-county rollout of the land titling program, this paper applies a difference-in-differences (DID) framework and finds that farmers with higher human capital are more likely to migrate out of villages following the completion of the titling program, which in turn causes a "brain drain" from the agricultural sector. There is a subsequent decrease in agricultural productivity and output. This productivity loss has not been thoroughly discussed in previous studies and nor considered in the policy making process. Our results indicate that future land reforms should consider the impact of land titling programs on the reallocation of human capital across sectors.

Land system reform is a key area of China's overall reform, which affects the whole body. This chapter proposes systematic analysis of the reform of China's land system and the path to promote it. China's land system is unique, but its shortcomings have become increasingly apparent along with economic development. The traditional development model is highly dependent on the driving role of land, resulting in an uncoordinated, unhealthy, and unsustainable development model. This chapter clarifies the general idea, fundamental goal, reform content, breakthrough point and reform sequence of the land system reform, which is of great significance for converting the growth model and promoting sustainable and healthy economic development.

China's current rural land system can be divided into three main areas: the farmland contracting management rights system, the house site system, and rural collective construction land system. This chapter sorts out how the corresponding rural land systems were formed, the systems' features, and the problems that have arisen in each of the three areas. The farmland contracting management rights system has formed some stable features, but the current system shows its inadequacy to accelerating urbanization and non-agriculturalization of the rural population. The rights appertaining to house sites are complex, and there are problems in the operation of the system, such as difficulty in implementing the rule of only one house per household. The collective construction land system has had significant growth effects, but some institutional dilemmas have emerged.

The Rural Revitalization Strategy carries the mission of rural modernization in the new era, and the theoretical basis of it must be reconsidered based on the analysis of developmental stages, urban–rural patterns and trends in rural change. The distorted urban–rural relationship and the inequality between urban and rural institutions have caused the existence and exacerbation of contemporary rural problems. If we are guided by the implementation of the Rural Revitalization Strategy and supported by strengthened institutional supplies for enlivening villages and by institutional innovation for urban–rural integration, and if we follow the pathway of "[first] enlivening industry, [then] enlivening the people, [and finally] enlivening the villages," we will be able to achieve the general requirements of the Rural Revitalization Strategy.

Modernisation is a worldwide phenomenon. It marks a revolutionary transformation in all fields of human endeavour, including politics, society, culture, thought, and values. In many ways, China's modernisation has the common characteristics of modernisation, including the nature of being developmental and transformative, institutional innovation, the guiding role of values, consciousness of material exchange between man and nature, and global openness. It also has the unique characteristics of catching up with and surpassing the modernisation of other countries through institutional construction and reform under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC). In the new era, China will build itself into a strong and modernised country through the Chinese path to modernisation.

Land assignment revenues and expenditures play an extremely critical role in local development and have an important impact on the overall economic and social situation. This chapter provides a comprehensive analysis of land assignment revenues and expenditures, including the changing trends and causes of land revenue growth, the costs and net revenues of land assignments, the expenditure structure of land assignment proceeds, and policies on land assignment revenues and expenditures and their allocation, and points out many problems in the management of land assignment revenues and expenditures. On this basis, we put forward policy recommendations to improve the management of land assignment revenues and expenditures.

This chapter selects eight representative regions as research objects to study the dynamics and influencing factors of China's rural land system after the contracting of production to households was implemented. The conclusion of this chapter is that after the household contracting reform, the central government's control over the structure of land ownership and its dominance in the configuration of interests, as it was under the traditional system, gave way to influences in the community structure. After the power of the community was strengthened as institutional arrangements evolved, the land system's evolution depended on the impact of these changes of structural factors on the new collective land rights structure formed by household contracting.

Land property rights are the rights arrangement, enforced by society, on how that land is used, which are the most basic institutional arrangement in a society. They are the relationship between rights and interests attached to the land—not a relationship between the holder of the right and the land. Land ownership consists of all possible rights, but must be treated separately under different systems. Furthermore, to evaluate the effectiveness of land property rights, the core lies in the contractual arrangement of control rights and rights bundles. To guarantee the robustness of land property rights, the prerequisite is the fulfillment of responsibilities and obligations.

一是拓展对农业内涵的认识.解决吃饭问题,不能光盯着有限的耕地,要把思路打开,树立大食物观,构建多元化食物供给体系.在保障国家粮食安全的前提下,不断挖掘并满足市场对农业的多元化需求,丰富农产品供给结构.二是提高农产品复杂度.增加农产品文化含量,赋予农产品知识含量,开发多样化农产品,提升农产品价值.三是以农业为基础,实现一、二、三产业深度交叉融合发展,打破传统农业单一生产模式,走生态低碳发展道路,发展休闲农业、生态农业、定制农业等新业态,充分开发农业多种功能,挖掘乡村多元价值,提高乡村经济活动复杂度.

This chapter reviews the formation of China's dual land system framework and its main features. The land system reform has been the engine of China's high-speed economic growth. Since reform, China's dual land system has been strengthening. In this process, the rural property and market development has moved toward real rights, while the development of the market for China's rural land non-agriculturalization has moved toward the maximization of local government interests. Reform of the land policy will play a key role in the sustainable development of China's economy and social harmony. The dualistic division of the land policy must be fundamentally reformed, and efforts must be made to promote the marketization of land.