Can Rural Residential Land Transfer Raise Peasants’ Income?

Abstract

Abstract In the less developed regions of China, except for cross-regional transfers to achieve horizontal poverty alleviation, which can increase peasants’ income to a certain extent in the short term, government-led rural residential land transfer does not significantly increase peasants’ income and may even reduce it. In developed regions, because peasants do not primarily depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, and because local governments have relatively ample financial resources to provide adequate compensation for rural residential land transfer, government-led rural residential land transfer can indeed raise the income of the poor to a certain extent. Essentially, the income from the transfer of rural residential land depends on the unit price and the area of rural residential land available for transfer, which should be used as the basis for determining rural residential land policies in such a way as to protect the vital interests of the greatest number of peasants.