Neighborhood Does Matter: Farmers’ Local Social Interactions and Land Rental Behaviors in China

The transfer of farmland is an important area of rural development research; however, the impact of rural social networks has been neglected in studies. The aim of this study is to explore the effects, mechanisms, and heterogeneity of neighbors’ behavior on the process of land renting by farmers. Based on the data of the China Family Panel Studies in 2018, this research empirically analyzes the impact of community-level, local social interactions on the land rental behavior of farmers and its mechanisms using a spatial probit model. The results of this study indicate that neighbors’ land rental behavior positively and significantly affects that of other farmers in the same village. In addition, neighbors’ land rental encourages other farmers in the same village to follow suit through an increase in the perceived importance of the Internet among the farmers. In addition, there is heterogeneity in neighborhood influence. Notably, the impact of social networks on the renting out of the land by farmers, as evidenced in this study, is a key factor in accelerating the circulation of rural land and promoting rural development, thus contributing to the process of rural revitalization and its recording in the literature.