Changes In Residential Rent And Related Income Under Land Requisition In Rural China: Some Evidence From A National Survey

With the development of urbanization, the activities of land requisition become increasingly frequent. In the process, the changes of land use types impress farmers. For one thing, a great number of the losses of agriculture lands decline their agricultural income sharply. For another, the improvements of location and environment benefit the profitable housing usage. Facing the income contradiction of farmers, the key to solve problems is to explain how the land use types after requisition affect their nonagricultural income.Based on an almost nationally representative rural data set of 1071 farmer households of 56 villages in 12 cities across China and relevant theoretical analysis, this paper demonstrates the basic information about land requisition and housing usage. Then it applies Tobit model to estimate the effect of different land use types after requisition and other factors on rent and off-farm income of housing in 2008. The conclusions about land requisition are following:first, the land requisition programs used for infrastructure and public constructions are conductive to the growth of rent and off-farm income of housing; second, getting the resettlement housings early can help to increase the aimed income while land requisition negotiation shows no effects.Overall, not only does this paper discuss the influence of land use type after requisition on farmers'income deeply, but also complement the study of the externality of land requisition, which means the rent and off-farm income of housing come from both landless famers and others in villages requisitioned. Furthermore, it creates a new theoretical opinion to land managers in order to understand and tackle the income problems of famers caused by land requisition properly and effectively.