Land expropriation, shock to employment, and employment differentiation: Findings from land-lost farmers in Nanjing, China

Abstract

Along with the acceleration of urbanization and industrialization in China since the late 1990s, a large amount of farmland has been expropriated for non-agricultural use, which has caused the emergence of many land-lost farmers. This article compares the change in employment status of land-lost farmers before and after land expropriation using the survey data of Nanjing city and analyzes the employment shock caused by land expropriation and consequent employment differentiation. The main conclusions are as follows: approximately 54% of farmers changed their original employment status after land expropriation, and the majority of them were engaged in agriculture before the expropriation; furthermore, the elderly and the farmers with lower human capital have more probability of suffering from the employment shock. In addition, there is an obvious differentiation of employment among the farmers who suffered the employment shock: the two most prominent patterns are migrant labor and unemployment, with few land-lost farmers continuing to engage in agriculture. Further econometric tests show that the improvement of human capital can significantly assist farmers in transferring to various non-agricultural occupations, but the older land-lost farmers are more likely to be unemployed, and the males are more willing to be migrant workers. In addition, there are also relationships between employment differentiation of farmers with the land compensation, land use, and living subsidy. The policy implications of this study are mainly embodied in providing vocational training to land-lost farmers and improving the targeting accuracy of employment assistance.