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Impact of Farmer Cooperatives on Labor Employment: Evidence from Rural China

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Farmer cooperatives are one of the types of important entities for agricultural production and rural community development in China. This study aims to examine the effects of farmer cooperatives on rural labor employment and explores the mechanisms from the perspective of institutional advantage, factor redistribution, and value chain. Leveraging two-waved panel data from the China Rural Development Survey, a multinomial Logit model and Tobit model with panel data are adopted. The results show that farmer cooperatives significantly boost rural labor employment, with a more pronounced effect on fully farming and part-time farming. These effects are primarily seen through three mechanisms: income augmentation stemming from institutional advantages, factor redistribution by land transferring and technology service/adoption, as well as industrial clusters. The limited value chain extension of farmer cooperatives hinders its role in improving fully non-agricultural employment. The findings suggest that the government should support the high-quality development of farmer cooperatives to facilitate rural labor employment.

Source: Land

DOI: 10.3390/land13122242

Authors: Yutong Qiu, Yunli Bai, Jiaojiao Wu, Xuanye Zeng, Linxiu Zhang

Institutions: Chinese Academy of Sciences, United Nations Environment Programme, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Language: English

Topic: Cooperative Studies and Economics

Subfield: Strategy and Management

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Decent work and economic growth, No poverty

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,955