Impact of Confirmation of Farmland Rights on Farmers’ Welfare: Based on the Micro-Empirical Investigation of Farmers in China

Abstract

The confirmation of farmland rights would have a great impact on the welfare of farmers in China. Taking Chinese farmers as the research object, the relationship between farmland rights confirmation, farmland transfer and the welfare of farmers was studied by adopting the propensity score matching method (PSM) and logistic model. The result showed that: (1) The confirmation of farmland rights could improve the welfare of farmers. The dominant factors that affected the impact of the confirmation of farmland rights included family net income, medical insurance, self-health evaluation, difficulty of land financing, stability of land management rights, the difficulty of employment, satisfaction with circulation prices, and the improvement of neighborhood relations. (2) Implementing the confirmation of farmland rights could improve the welfare of farmers, and there were significant differences between farmers. The value of the welfare of farmers who had been transferred out was higher than that of farmers who had been transferred in. (3) After implementing the confirmation of farmland rights, the welfare of farmers would be improved by the net income of the household, the stability of land management rights and the improvement of neighborhood relations, while the welfare of farmers would be hindered from continuous improvement by the difficulty of employment, and satisfaction with circulation prices had opposite effects on the welfare of farmers who had transferred in or out. Based on these results, the suggestions put forward include building a price mechanism of effective circulation, utilizing differentiated skill training, and improving various measurements to show the advantages for welfare of the confirmation of farmland rights.