Nico Heerink

Income inequality and the environment: aggregation bias in environmental Kuznets curves

Abstract The environmental Kuznets curve assumes an inverted U-shaped relation between environmental damage and per capita income. Recently it has been argued in the literature that in addition to income levels, the inequality in the distribution of power and income is (positively) related to environmental degradation. We provide an additional argument, based on simple aggregation, for including a measure of income dispersion in empirical analyses. When the relationship between environmental damage and household income is concave (e.g. resembles an environmental Kuznets curve), then income inequality is negatively related to total environmental damage. Results from an empirical analysis of cross-national variation indicate that the aggregation effect can run counter to and outweigh the political economy effect for some environmental indicators.

Land administration reform in China: Its impact on land allocation and economic development

Abstract This paper examines the reform of the land administration system (LAS) in China since 1978, and its benefits, shortcomings and options for further reform. The LAS reform has had significant effects on land use and economic development. It has created a more effective land use system and a market for transfers of land, in particular non-agricultural land. Meanwhile, a basic system of land administration has been realized. Important legislative changes accompanied the LAS reform. Imperfect aspects of the LAS, however, result in some negative effects on land allocation such as the rapid loss of arable land to the non-agricultural sectors, very small land use scale and degrading land quality. A framework of further reform measures dealing with these problems is presented in this paper.

Are farm households’ land renting and migration decisions inter-related in rural China?

Economic reforms in rural China have stimulated the development of land and labour markets. The increasing importance of these two markets suggests that they might be closely inter-related, but proper statistical tests are lacking. This paper examines the factors that determine the participation of farm households in land renting and migration, and investigates whether participation in land renting and migration influence each other, using a seemingly unrelated bivariate probit regression. Data from a household survey held in 2000 in three villages in the north-east of the Jiangxi Province were used to estimate the land renting and migration equations. Household characteristics, fixed factors, household land and labour endowments, institutional factors, and land and labour prices were used as explanatory variables in both equations. We found that the error terms of the land renting equation and the migration equation were strongly correlated, confirming that there is a negative relationship between land renting and migration.

Water savings through off‐farm employment?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to gain more insight into the relationship between off-farm employment of rural households and water-saving investments and irrigation water use in rural China. Design/methodology/approach – Data from a survey held among 317 households in Minle County, Zhangye City, Gansu Province, covering the year 2007, are used for a probit analysis explaining investments in land leveling and for an ordinary least squares regression explaining irrigation water use per mu. Findings – Off-farm employment is not significantly related to investments in land leveling, but is negatively associated with water use per mu. In addition, the paper finds that the share of migrant students in a household is positively related to investments in land leveling. The results indicate the presence of major factor market imperfections in the research area, and confirm that the new economics of labor migration (NELM) approach is more relevant for analyzing off-farm employment and agricultural production in China than neoclassical economic theory. Originality/value – The paper expands the NELM approach towards the analysis of water-saving investments and water use. In addition, it distinguishes migrant students as an important category that should be taken into account in analyzing farm household decisions making.

Economic Performance and Sustainability of a Novel Intercropping System on the North China Plain.

Double cropping of wheat and maize is common on the North China Plain, but it provides limited income to rural households due to the small farm sizes in the region. Local farmers in Quzhou County have therefore innovated their production system by integration of watermelon as a companion cash crop into the system. We examine the economic performance and sustainability of this novel intercropping system using crop yield data from 2010 to 2012 and farm household survey data collected in 2012. Our results show that the gross margin of the intercropping system exceeded that of the double cropping system by more than 50% in 2012. Labor use in the intercropping system was more than three times that in double cropping. The lower returns per labor hour in intercropping, however, exceeded the average off-farm wage in the region by a significant margin. Nutrient surpluses and irrigation water use are significant larger under the intercropping system. We conclude that the novel wheat-maize/watermelon intercropping system contributes to rural poverty alleviation and household-level food security, by raising farm incomes and generating more employment, but needs further improvement to enhance its sustainability.

Modelling Economic Policy Reforms and Sustainable Land Use in Developing Countries: Key Issues

Four key issues emerge,from the models presented in this book,in quanting the effects of economic policy reforms on sustainable land use in developing countries: (1) conceptualisation of household objectives,market imperfections,agricultural production relationships,and sustainability,(2) specification of interactions between agricultural inputs,agricultural activities,spatially dispersed land units,household objectives,and economic agents,(3) method of aggregating micro-relationships to regional or higher levels,and (4) incorporation of a time dimension in the relationships. The way in which the various models presented in this volume incorporate these four key issues is reviewed. Based on this review,it is recommended that future quantitative research should concentrate on (1) incorporating the institutional environment of rural households,(2) testing the validity of basic assumptions,such as separability of household decision making,and/or the sensitivity of model outcomes to changes in these assumptions,and (3) addressing the aggregation bias in regional or higher-level models resulting from non-linear micro relationships and from off-site effects of soil erosion.

Land tenure security and technical efficiency : New insights from a case study in Northwest China

Improving technical efficiency in agriculture can play an important role in meeting present and future demands for agricultural products, at the same time enhancing the long-term sustainability of land and water use. This paper examines the impact of household perceptions of land tenure security on technical efficiency using detailed household-level data collected in Minle County in northwest China. The authors find that the (perceived) tenure security provided by land certificates encourages part-time farming with relatively low technical efficiency. The renting out of land by households with migrant members can only partly make up for this negative effect, because land rental markets are thin and highly fragmented. Therefore, the provision of land certificates to rural households has a negative impact on technical efficiency. For tenure security provided by the expected absence of land reallocations in the near future, on the other hand, the authors find that it reduces temporary migration and thereby contributes to higher technical efficiency.

Institutions policies and soil degradation:theoretical examinations and case studies in Southeast China

Abstract Southeast China is one of the severe soil degradation areas in China. This paper theoretically examines the impact of some important institutional arrangements and policies, like land management pattern, the rural off-farm employment, land property change and changes in prices of agricultural products, on soil degradation in this area. It further conducts some case studies to confirm the potential relationship between the institutions & policies and soil degradation, applying the surveyed and the second hand data. The paper at last makes some conclusions and proposes some suggestions on how to promote soil conservation by improving the ways of policy decision-making and the effects of policies on land use.

Agricultural supply response and structural adjustment in Ghana and Burkina Faso -- estimates from macro-level time-series data.

Liberalisation of prices is a major element of structural adjustment programmes which have been implemented in many African countries since the beginning of the 1980s. One of the main objectives of price liberalisation is to increase the relative prices of agricultural products with the purpose of stimulating agricultural production. Measures taken to this effect include the abolition of government control of most agricultural prices, devaluation of the exchange rate, and reduction of protective import tariffs for industrial products.

Rural Land Markets and Economic Reform in Mainland China

With the start of agrarian reforms in mainland China in 1978, rural factor markets (i.e. markets for labour, capital, land, and technology) began to develop despite the fact that resources are still collectively owned. Since 1992, a market economic system has been introduced that has accelerated the development of the rural land market. Due to rapid industrialisation and urbanisation and the general improvement of socio-economic conditions, market functions have gained importance in the allocation of rural land.