Labor Endowment Change, Regional Difference, and Agricultural Production Location Adjustment: Evidence from China

Zhoufu Yan, Shurui Zhang and Fangwei Wu ()
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Zhoufu Yan: College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China
Shurui Zhang: China Academy for Rural Development (CARD) and School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Fangwei Wu: Institute of Finance and Economics and China Institute for Urban-Rural Development, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai 200433, China

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 2, 1-15

Abstract: The outflow of the rural labor force has a great impact on the location distribution of agricultural production, which has not attracted enough attention in existing studies. This article describes the mechanism of agricultural production location adjustment and further studies the influence of a regional difference in labor endowment on agricultural production location adjustment. Based on commodity and province-level panel data calculation, the results show that the agricultural production location in China has been adjusted from the East to the Central and then to the West with accelerating transfer speed. Furthermore, it is found that the regional differences in labor endowment are the main driving force for the shift of low alternative crop production. The more labor-intensive the crop varieties are, the more obvious the influence of the regional differences in labor endowment is on the crop production location adjustment. Moreover, regional differences in labor endowment have little effect on the location adjustment of vegetable production, as expanding the vegetable market demand may offset the effect of labor supply shortage on the adjustment of vegetable production location. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate a regional industrial development plan consistent with the trend of agricultural production location adjustment, as well as promote the construction of agricultural circulation facilities and socialized services in less developed areas.

Keywords: labor endowment; regional difference; production location; industrial transfer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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