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Conservation Payments, Liquidity Constraints, and Off‐Farm Labor: Impact of the Grain‐for‐Green Program on Rural Households in China

Year: 2008

Type: article

Abstract: This study evaluates the labor response of rural households participating in the Grain‐for‐Green program in China, the largest payments for ecosystem services program in the developing world. Using a panel data set that we designed and implemented, we find that the participating households are increasingly shifting their labor endowment from on‐farm work to the off‐farm labor market. However, the effects vary depending on the initial level of human and physical capital. The results support the view that one reason why the participants are more likely to find off‐farm employment is because the program is relaxing households' liquidity constraints.

Source: American Journal of Agricultural Economics

DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8276.2008.01184.x

Authors: Emi Uchida, Scott Rozelle, Jintao Xu

Institutions: University of Rhode Island, Stanford University, Peking University

Language: English

Topic: Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management

Subfield: Global and Planetary Change

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: No poverty, Decent work and economic growth, Zero hunger

Open Access status: green

Funders: Ford Foundation, Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, National Natural Science Foundation of China