Prosocial village leaders and the resettlement outcomes of land-lost farmers: evidence from Qingdao, China

This paper examines whether the prosociality of village leaders who were involved in the original implementation of a resettlement decision impact the well-being of households from seven villages four years after the displacement. In particular, we report the significant statistical correlation between the level of group cooperation of village officials as elicited from a public good game in seven rural villages and the reported levels of life satisfaction four years after the resettlement. The data comes from two sources: (i) a laboratory experiment with village officials at the time of resettlement, and (ii) follow-up telephone interviews with resettled villagers. We find that these prosocial attitudes of leaders complement other sustainable livelihood measures in promoting the well-being of resettled villagers.