| As an important measure among the "five batches" of poverty alleviation in the 13 th Five-Year Plan period,the relocation makes an important contribution to winning the battle against poverty.As entering the 14 th Five-Year Plan period,the focus of the "work related to agriculture,rural areas and farmers " has historically shifted to the comprehensive promotion of rural revitalization.Deeply aligning efforts to consolidate and expand the achievements in poverty alleviation with efforts to promote rural revitalization have become the primary task to promote the modernization of agriculture and rural areas.Strengthening the follow-up support for relocated peasants has become the top priority and key to consolidate the achievements of poverty alleviation and prevent large-scale return to poverty.In recent years,the Report of the 20 th National Congress of the Communist Party and the No.1 Central Document have repeatedly proposed the implementation of the employment priority strategy,making effective employment assistance and solid promotion of stable employment for relocated peasants the priority and core initiative of follow-up support for relocation.In particular,non-agricultural employment of female peasants is not only an important source of increasing labor supply for farmer households,but also has the gender dividend effect of increasing children’s education investment,improving household members’ health and eliminating the intergenerational transmission of poverty.However,relocated peasants have multiple employment dilemmas and development bottlenecks with insufficient participation and apparent precariousness of non-agricultural employment.Due to the constraints of many factors,female relocated peasants have significantly insufficient allocation,lower income and worse rights protection in non-agricultural employment.Therefore,how to develop targeted measures to effectively improve the non-agricultural employment of relocated peasants and tap the potential and dividends of women’s non-agricultural employment have become a major practical problem facing the follow-up support for relocation in the new era.Based on this,this study focuses on the non-agricultural employment of peasants from participation and quality,and explores the impact and mechanism of relocation on nonagricultural employment of peasants from a gender perspective,which is of great theoretical and practical significance for accelerating the improvement of the follow-up support for relocation and comprehensively promoting rural revitalization.Taking the southern Shaanxi Province as an example,which is the origin and key implementation area of relocation in the 13 th Five-Year Plan,using spatial poverty theory,non-agricultural employment theory,dual labor market theory,job search matching theory,and employment gender difference theory as guidance,this study constructed a theoretical analysis framework on the impact of relocation on peasants’ non-agricultural employment participation and quality from a gender perspective.Further,the current situation and problems of relocated peasants’ non-agricultural employment were analyzed using data from a micro-sample of 2716 peasants obtained from field research in southern Shaanxi.On this basis,various mathematical models and econometric methods such as Probit,Tobit,simultaneous-equations model,negative binomial model,propensity score matching model,and mediating effect test model were used to empirically explore the impact and mechanism of relocation on peasants’ non-agricultural employment participation and quality from a gender perspective,and analyze the heterogeneity in the effects of relocation from a gender perspective in terms of relocation type and relocation distance.Finally,this study proposed recommendations for improving the follow-up support for relocation with the empirical findings.The main findings of this study are as follows:(1)Non-agricultural employment is the main livelihood strategy for relocated peasants.The policy target of at least one employed person in a relocated household has basically been achieved,which has laid an important foundation for relocated peasants to escape from poverty and increase income.However,the non-agricultural employment of relocated peasants is plagued by a double low level of participation and quality.From the perspective of non-agricultural employment participation,the non-agricultural allocation of relocated peasants is still insufficient,the non-agricultural employment participation rate is low and the participation time is inadequate.In particular,the non-agricultural employment participation potential and gender dividend of female relocated peasants have not been fully explored,and the level of labor supply needs to be improved.From the perspective of nonagricultural employment quality,the instability of employment is a prominent problem,which is not conducive to the sustainability of peasants’ livelihoods and,to a certain extent,has laid the hidden risk of consolidating and expanding the results of poverty eradication.Compared with male relocated peasants,female relocated peasants have lower income and rights protection of non-agricultural employment.(2)Relocation has the effect of promoting peasants’ non-agricultural employment participation with no significant gender differences.The non-agricultural employment participation behavior and time of relocated farmers of different genders are significantly higher.The mechanism test found that participation in training,aged and child care,and cost of farming played significant mediating effects in the effect of relocation on peasants’ employment participation.Compared with male relocated peasants,participation in training,aged and child care,and cost of farming were more beneficial to increase female relocated peasants’ employment participation.Meanwhile,the heterogeneity analysis of relocation characteristics found that peasants’ non-agricultural employment participation was significantly increased in different relocation types without gender differences;in terms of relocation distance,due to the difference in intrinsic family development needs,relocation at a medium distance of 5-10 km significantly increased male peasants’ employment participation,while long distance of 10 km and above significantly increased female peasants’ employment participation.(3)Relocation has the effect of reducing the stability of peasants’ non-agricultural employment with significant gender differences.Compared to female peasants,participation in relocation only significantly reduced male peasants’ non-agricultural employment stability.The mechanism test found that risk preference and cost of living played a significant mediating effect in the effect of participation in relocation on peasants’ non-agricultural employment stability.Compared to female relocated peasants,risk preference and cost of living played a greater role in reducing male relocated peasants’ employment stability.Meanwhile,heterogeneity analysis of relocation characteristics found that male peasants’ non-agricultural employment stability decreased significantly across different relocation types and relocation distances.(4)Relocation has the effect of improving the security of peasants’ non-agricultural employment rights with significant gender differences.Compared with male peasants,participation in relocation only significantly increased the security of non-agricultural employment rights of female peasants.The mechanism test found that Internet utilization and social capital played a significant mediating effect in the effect of participation in relocation on peasants’ non-agricultural employment rights.Compared with male relocated peasants,Internet utilization and social capital were more conducive to improving female relocated peasants’ non-agricultural employment rights.Meanwhile,heterogeneity analysis of relocation characteristics found that female peasants’ non-agricultural employment rights was significantly improved in centralized relocation,medium distance relocation of 5-10 km and long-distance relocation of more than 10 km.(5)Relocation has the effect of increasing non-agricultural employment income without significant gender difference.Non-agricultural employment income of relocated farmers of different genders has increased significantly.The mechanism test found that internet utilization played a significant mediating effect in the effect of participation in relocation on peasants’ non-agricultural employment income.Compared with male relocated peasants,internet utilization was more beneficial to improve the non-agricultural employment income of female relocated peasants.Heterogeneity analysis of relocation characteristics found that there was no significant difference in the improvement of non-agricultural employment income for both relocated male peasants and female peasants across relocation characteristics.In addition,participation in relocation reduces the non-agricultural income gap within peasants,which is mainly achieved through income’s significant growth in the low-income group.Compared to female peasants,participation in relocation only significantly increases the non-agricultural income of male peasants in the low-income group,that is it only plays a role in reducing the income gap within the male peasants group.Based on the above findings,in order to improve the follow-up support,and deeply align efforts to consolidate and expand the achievements in poverty alleviation with efforts to promote rural revitalization,this study proposes policy implications in terms of strengthening support for non-agricultural employment training and internet utilization for relocated female peasants,accelerating the improvement of infrastructure and public services related to aged and child care and network construction in relocated areas,accelerating the revitalization of land in areas moved out,taking multiple measures to reconstruct the social networks of relocated female peasants and strengthen the integration of relocated communities,reasonably guiding peasants’ risk attitudes and establishing rational development expectations,and implementing targeted subsidies and preferential policies to alleviate the pressure of living costs.The innovation of this study is mainly reflected in the following three aspects.Firstly,it effectively enriches the study of the impact of relocation on peasants’ non-agricultural employment.From the perspective of both participation and quality of non-agricultural employment,this study not only provides a multi-dimensional perspective and a comprehensive grasp of the non-agricultural employment status of relocated peasants,but also effectively clarifies the practical problems and important aspects of the relocated peasants’ employment quality that need to be improved.Secondly,the mechanism of the effect of relocation on peasants’ non-agricultural employment is explored and tested.It not only helps to understand the intrinsic mechanisms of the effectiveness of relocation policies,unveiling the "logical black box" of the impact of relocation on peasants’ non-agricultural employment,but also provides the practical policy focus points for improving the follow-up support for relocation.Thirdly,the study explores the policy effects of relocation from a gender perspective,which enables the deconstruction of farmer households and the deep concern for women’s disadvantaged groups.It not only enhances the credibility of the findings through cross-corroboration between peasants of different genders,but also helps to deeply explore the potential and dividends of non-agricultural employment for female relocated farmers,effectively enriching and expanding the research perspective on the effects of relocation policies. |
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