Farmers’ attitudes toward land titling and its potential effects on rural development in China

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate farmers’ attitudes and behavior toward land titling and to study its potential effects on rural development. Design/methodology/approach Using household survey data collected from five provinces of China in 2010, this paper assesses farmer’s attitudes toward land titling and examines the potential effects of land titling on rural land transferring and labor migration. Findings Rural residential land titling has significant effects on farmers’ attitudes toward land transferring and their migration intention. Farmers who have more non-agricultural development opportunities are more likely to welcome land titling. The titling of rural residential land could provide secure property rights for farmers, and thus stimulate them to trade, mortgage their rural residential property, and migrate to urban areas. Research limitations/implications Land titling in rural China will probably affect rural land transferring and encourage rural labor migrate to urban, and thus promote rural development. Originality/value This paper investigates farmers’ attitudes and behavior toward land titling, and examines its potential effects on rural land transferring and labor migration, based on national survey data. This paper sheds new lights on farmers’ demand for types of land tenure reforms and how these reforms would affect the perceived opportunities available for farmers.