Three Essays on the Land Property Rights Reform in China

This dissertation includes three essays exploring topics to land property rights reform in China. In the first chapter, co-authored with Pinghan Liang, we examine the effect of decollectivization reform in rural China after 1978 on cultural public goods provision. A staggered difference-in-differences model that analyzes the timing of reform implementation in 1,114 counties finds that the reform resulted in a surge in the number of newly constructed religious sites. Further evidence suggests that in the commune system before the reform, the demand for religions was suppressed and the reform increased people's power and resources for building religious sites. These findings demonstrate that economic institutions may shape cultural behaviors in the short term. In the second chapter, co-authored with Pinghan Liang, we exploit the county-by-county rollout of land reform in rural China since 1978 to explore the causal impact of decollectivization on child adoptions. The difference-in-differences estimation demonstrates an increase in child adoption by sterile households after the reform, coinciding with a surge in child trafficking. Further analysis seems to support that decollectivization raises the value of children by increasing labor demand for old age support and for agricultural production, as well as receiving favorable redistribution of land. This indicates the importance of economic incentives in child adoption in developing countries. In the third chapter, I focus on land conflict in another type of land property rights reform-land expropriation. Using staggered changes in county-level land compensation mandated by provincial governments in China, I test how increased compensation affects land conflicts using the difference-in-differences method. Perhaps counterintuitively, I find that an increase in compensation results in a 10% increase in land conflicts. Subsequent investigation uncovers that the increase in land conflicts is likely driven by the unequal increase in compensation across regions, although the overall rise in compensation partially alleviates grievances. The results highlight the need for carefully designed and progressively changing compensation policies to reduce conflict around land-transfer programs.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Economics

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Graduate Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Xiao, Shukang

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Crost, Benjamin

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Staubli, Stephan
• Magesan, Arvind
• Whalley, Alexander
• Morales, Juan S

• land property rights reform
• China
• culture
• family
• conflict

Statement dc:rights

• University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

https://doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/46573

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:1880/118977