Does Farmland Leasing Affect Agricultural Total Factor Productivity? Insights From Chinese Rice Farmers
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: ABSTRACT China seeks to encourage farmland leasing to stimulate new economic growth and make agriculture more attractive to young laborers. This paper analyzes panel data from Jiangsu province, employing a stochastic frontier cost function to calculate total factor productivity (TFP) growth and its components. Additionally, a two‐stage least squares model is used to assess the impacts of farmland leasing on TFP growth. The findings indicate that TFP growth significantly contributes to output growth, averaging 2%, and exhibits a fluctuating yet upward trend. Notably, the contributions of technological progress and technical efficiency change to TFP growth remain relatively stable at approximately 1.5%–2%, while changes in scale efficiency are the primary drivers. Farmland leasing markedly enhances TFP growth and scale efficiency change, as opposed to technological progress and technical efficiency change. An increase of 1 mu in farmland leasing size results in a 1.565% and 1.569% enhancement in TFP growth rate and scale efficiency change, respectively. The enhancement effects on TFP growth and scale efficiency change are more pronounced for large‐scale farmers, particularly following the TRS reform. This study also draws some policy implications.
Source: Review of Development Economics
DOI: 10.1111/rode.13214
Authors: Xiaoheng Zhang, Junwei Lu, Han Liu, Lingxiao Hu
Language: English
Field: Decision Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funders: National Natural Science Foundation of China, Government of Jiangsu Province, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing University, National Social Science Fund of China, Major Project of Philosophy and Social Science Research in Colleges and Universities of Jiangsu Province
OpenAlex ID: W4408911740