Can the Return of Rural Labor Effectively Stimulate the Demand for Land? Empirical Evidence from Sichuan Province, China

Kai Huang, Shaoquan Liu () and Dingde Xu ()
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Kai Huang: Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Chengdu 610041, China
Shaoquan Liu: Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Chengdu 610041, China
Dingde Xu: College of Management, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China

Agriculture, 2025, vol. 15, issue 6, 1-19

Abstract: Promoting moderate-scale land management is a crucial pathway for achieving the transformation of agricultural modernization in China. Whether migrant workers with the advantage of human capital can effectively promote moderate scale management is a problem worthy of in-depth discussion. Based on survey data from three counties in Sichuan Province in 2024, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of migrant workers’ return on farmers’ land transfer-in behavior by constructing IV-Probit and IV-Tobit models. The results show that (1) the return of migrant workers significantly promotes the land transfer-in of rural households by enhancing their risk tolerance and increasing the participation of cooperative organizations; (2) however, there is some heterogeneity in these results. The effect of the return of migrant workers in plain areas and economically developed villages on land transfer-in is stronger than that in mountainous areas and economically weak villages. Based on these findings, this paper suggests that differentiated policies should be formulated according to the natural conditions and economic foundations of different regions, making full use of the human capital advantages of returning migrant workers to effectively promote the realization of moderate-scale management among farmers.

Keywords: land transfer-in; migrant workers return; scale management; China (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: 2025
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