Farmland titling, farmland adjustment and rural collective action: Application of institutional analysis and development framework using evidence from China's irrigation commons

Abstract

The existence of land adjustment undermines the positive effect of farmland titling. This situation not only affects agricultural operation, but also the social governance of rural areas. Using the institutional analysis and development framework, this paper takes the governance of irrigation commons in rural China as an example. Based on 721 household survey data sets, the ordinal regression model and instrumental variable method are employed to examine the relationship between farmland titling, land adjustment, and irrigation collective action. The empirical results show that, on the one hand, farmland titling both clarifies and stabilizes farmers' ownership of the residual claim on land output and encourages farmers to participate in irrigation collective action to ensure their benefits. On the other hand, land adjustment lower farmers' perception of the security of their property rights and discourage long-term investment in agricultural production. This situation not only reduces the incentive for farmers to participate in collective action, but also weakens the promoting effect of farmland right confirmation on collective action. Therefore, future land system reforms should enhance farmers' perception of property rights security and promote the land governance mode. The research conclusions of this paper provide implications for developing countries towards promoting both land system reform and socioeconomic development.