Land Property Rights and Household Welfare: Evidence from Rural China

Han Li, Goytom Abraha Kahsay, Wusheng Yu and Hao Xia

Economic Development and Cultural Change, 2026, vol. 74, issue 4, 1469 - 1507

Abstract: This paper investigates the effect of land property rights on rural household welfare and resilience outcomes by using large panel data on the rollout of China’s large-scale land certification program. While the program increases households’ consumption, income, assets, and resilience scores, we find no effects on health outcome (proxied by household expenditure on health and self-reported physical health of the household head). Our heterogeneity analysis suggests that the program increases household consumption and resilience across both male- and female-headed households as well as poor and nonpoor households. We identify agricultural investments, access to credit, land rental market participation, and labor allocation as potential mechanisms through which the land certification program affects household welfare and resilience outcomes. Our findings suggest that land property rights reform could be another effective strategy to alleviate poverty in line with the poverty trap hypothesis.

Date: 2026
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