Analysis of the Influences of Ecological Compensation Projects on Transfer Employment of Rural Labor from the Perspective of Capability

Abstract

As an environmental policy that directly brings economic benefits to farmers, ecological compensation should achieve the dual goals of ecological environmental protection and rural poverty reduction. With the implementation of various ecological compensation projects, a large number of studies began to focus on the impact of ecological compensation projects on rural labor transfer employment. However, most of the existing studies focus on a specific project and fail to consider a comparative analysis of different types of projects. Therefore, this study used the survey data of 1279 rural laborers in the Yanqing District of Beijing to analyze the impact of different types of ecological compensation projects on the transfer employment of rural labor from the perspective of self-development capacity. The results show that post-based ecological compensation projects provide a low quality of posts and weaken the initiative of participants to further expand their employment channels. Land-based projects downsize agricultural production and reduce the agricultural production activities of participants, without significantly increasing their likelihood of transfer employment. In the long run, the current implementation of ecological compensation projects may cause problems regarding labor surpluses and land restoration. This study has certain practical application value and practical guiding significance for further improving the design of ecological compensation mechanisms.