Authors
Hanan G Jacoby, Guo Li, Scott Rozelle
Publication date
2002/12/1
Journal
American Economic Review
Volume
92
Issue
5
Pages
1420-1447
Publisher
American Economic Association
Description
We use household data from northeast China to examine the link between investment and land tenure insecurity induced by China's system of village-level land reallocation. We quantify expropriation risk using a hazard analysis of individual plot tenures and incorporate the predicted “hazards of expropriation” into an empirical analysis of plot-level investment. Our focus is on organic fertilizer use, which has long-lasting benefits for soil quality. Although we find that higher expropriation risk significantly reduces application of organic fertilizer, a welfare analysis shows that guaranteeing land tenure in this part of China would yield only minimal efficiency gains.
Total citations
Scholar articles
HG Jacoby, G Li, S Rozelle - American Economic Review, 2002