Land integration and titling policy in China: Institutional barriers and countermeasures

The land integration and titling policy (LITP) is a grassroots innovation for implementing a top-down land titling policy (LTP) that has critical institutional economic implications. Although the LITP can increase land economies of scale, institutional costs and practical constraints also exist. Specifically, land heterogeneity and fragmentation directly restrict the LITP. This paper uses survey data from 1507 farmers in Yangshan, Guangdong, in 2017 and a logistic semiparametric model to conduct an empirical analysis. The results show that the heterogeneity of geological fertility, irrigation facilities, and farmland rent have a significant negative effect on implementation of the LITP, with geological fertility heterogeneity having the most significant effect. Villages with hilly and mountainous terrain have more difficulty implementing the LITP. The degree of land fragmentation within the land heterogeneity factor significantly inhibits the LITP. Roads for cultivation machines and irrigation facilities significantly promote the implementation of the LITP, and moreover, cultivation-machine roads effectively eliminate the inhibiting effect of land fragmentation on the LITP. The LITP has its own system space, and a good institution always needs an institutional device for smooth promotion. Heterogeneity and the fragmentation of land are hard constraints for integration and titling, but they can be resolved through agricultural production infrastructure. Findings suggest that the joint promotion of a core and a supplementary institution can have great significance for the smooth progress of mandatory institutional changes, e.g., land titling. •The land integration and titling policy (LITP) is a grassroots innovation for implementing a top-down land titling policy.•The LITP can increase land economies of scale, institutional costs and practical constraints also exist.•This paper uses data from Yangshan, Guangdong and a logistic semiparametric model to conduct an empirical analysis.•Heterogeneity and fragmentation of land are hard constraints for LITP.•The constraints of LITP can be resolved through roads for cultivation machines and irrigation facilities .