The Causal Pathway of Rural Human Settlement, Livelihood Capital, and Agricultural Land Transfer Decision-Making: Is It Regional Consistency?

The impact of the digital economy on land transfer-out decisions among Chinese farmers: evidence from CHFS micro-data

Land transfer is essential for advancing moderate-scale agriculture, and the digital economy plays a key role in facilitating these transfers. Based on microdata from four rounds of the China Household Finance Survey spanning from 2013 to 2019, this study employs a Linear Probability Model (LPM) to examine the impact of digital economy on rural land transfer-out decisions. The results indicate that: (1) The development of the digital economy significantly increases the likelihood of rural households transferring land out. Specifically, for each unit increase in the digital economy index, the probability of a household transferring land out increases by 3.39%. These conclusions remain robust even after accounting for endogeneity and conducting robustness checks. (2) The digital economy facilitates rural land transfer-out by promoting non-agricultural employment and entrepreneurship among farmers, as well as enhancing online social interactions and information acquisition. (3) There are heterogeneous impacts due to different scales and transferees, variations in physical and human capital, as well as differences in village topographies. This study deepens the understanding of the digital economy's impact on land transfer decision-making and provides relevant policy references for facilitating land transfer and agricultural modernization.

Impact of livelihood capital and rural site conditions on livelihood resilience of farm households: evidence from contiguous poverty-stricken areas in China

Farm households around the world are increasingly exposed to both external and internal shocks and stressors. Enhancing the resilience of farm households to frequent disturbances holds paramount importance in fostering the sustainability of their livelihoods and the revitalization of rural areas. Based on 1500 household samples from 14 contiguous poverty-stricken areas (CPSA) in China, this study explores the causal pathways between livelihood capitals of farm households and rural site conditions of rural communities, as well as quantifying their impacts on farm households' livelihood resilience using structural equation models. In particular, the livelihood resilience of farm households is measured based on the "Exposure-Sensitivity-Adaptability" framework. The results show that livelihood resilience is positively represented by exposure and adaptability, but is negatively correlated with sensitivity. Specifically, households with lower mean health and higher dependency ratio are more sensitive to risks, while exposure to agroforestry pests and diseases will lead farm households to diversify their livelihood activities and increase crop and livestock variety to enhance their adaptability. The livelihood capital of farm households has a significant positive effect on livelihood resilience (β = 0.874, p < 0.001). Rural site conditions have both significant direct and indirect impacts on livelihood resilience, with the direct impact (β =  - 0.207, p < 0.05) being negative and a bit larger than the positive indirect impact (β = 0.163, p < 0.05), as mediated by livelihood capital. The government should, therefore, invest more in health insurance, education and training, financial support, and infrastructure, and implement village planning to enhance both the quality of household livelihood capitals and rural site conditions in CPSA.

Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Rural Revitalization and an Improvement Path: A Typical Old Revolutionary Cultural Area as an Example

At present, the focus of global attention is on implementing rural revitalization strategies. However, constructing a set of scientifically based evaluation indexes for the evaluation of the effectiveness of rural revitalization implementation, exploring the implementation plan for rural revitalization, has become a common concern and a focus of discussion in political and academic circles. This study used a typical rural revitalization demonstration area in China as an example. We proposed a theoretical framework for rural revitalization research and constructed an index evaluation system for the evaluation of the effectiveness of rural revitalization implementation and influencing factors from two perspectives: material life and spiritual life. The results were as follows: Differences were found in the implementation effectiveness of rural revitalization strategies in the study area; especially, in areas with obvious rural cultural characteristics, their implementation level was relatively high. The implementation effectiveness of rural revitalization strategies was the result of multi-factor interactions. The village greening rate, innovation ability, and the age of village supporters were the main factors affecting rural revitalization, and the interaction effects of a village's innovation ability and other factors were significant. Therefore, we argue that in the process of promoting the sustainable development of villages, it is necessary to prominent the characteristics of village construction and improve the effectiveness of the implementation of village revitalization strategies at both the material and spiritual levels.