The key to a smooth land transfer (including land transfer-out and transfer-in) lies in the cooperation between the land supply and demand parties. Existing studies explore how land registration programs affect land transfer from a macro level or from a micro level in a certain area, but little consideration has been given to the interaction and behavioral disciplines of stakeholders. This article aims at testing the possible mechanism of the land registration program on land transfer in rural China by bridging and extending concepts from peasant theories and by employing mediation models. The empirical results reveal that the land registration program has a significant positive impact on land transfer, which is an important path in order to overcome the cooperative dilemma between land supply and demand parties. Additionally, livelihood security inhibits the positive impact of the land registration program on land transfer-out. While agricultural management incentives promote the positive impact of the land registration program on land transfer-in. Furthermore, these findings contribute to a novel perspective for evaluating land registration programs and deepen the understanding that intricate driving factors behind the decrease in the land transfer growth rate can have in rural China.

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