The long-term health and economic consequences of improved property rights

Abstract

This paper studies the long-term health and economic consequences of China’s Household Responsibility System (HRS) reform—a property reform that assigned collectively owned farmland to individual households with secure tenures and boosted labor productivity among rural populations. Using regional variation in reform timing and pace, I provide evidence that early-life exposure to HRS improved individuals’ later-life health, education, and labor market outcomes. However, exposure to HRS at critical school ages reduced human capital investment in children, making them less likely to receive education and more likely to remain in agriculture.