Land endowment and education investment behavior of rural households: a field survey based on 887 administrative villages in 31 provinces of China

Abstract

This paper analyzes the influence of land endowment possessed by the rural household on education decisions under the condition of insufficient rural land circulation and rural labor transfer. Results show that land endowment influences education decisions through two effects: income and substitution. For most rural households, the substitution effect of land endowment on educational investment is dominant. Meanwhile, the impact of household land size and the education level of the labor force on rural household income show "interval difference"; i.e., only when the logarithm of household land size is higher than the threshold of 2.014 can land endowment and educational investment be effectively allocated and raise rural household income. We suggest that limitation of land circulation be removed and the system be farmer-centered so that farmers' income will be raised and rural labor will be better employed in urban areas.

The Status of Family Resilience: Effects of Sustainable Livelihoods in Rural China

“…Also, rural families can acquire extra money if they get rent from land or houses, and families who have more agricultural machines participate in commercial agricultural services and can make extra money as they adapt to the marketization of rural society (Zhang et al 2015). By contrast, rural families with few available physical facilities usually live in poverty and become overwhelmed if anyone becomes sick or their children need higher education (Huang 2018;Yang and Xu 2019). Third, the social capital scores in Table 4 show that rural families who are more resilient have more social capital and will be more adaptive.…”

Land Endowment and Parental Educational Investment in Rural China

“…Although the income effect still exists, reflected in the expected positive and significant sign for agricultural income in M3, the substitution effect of land on educational investment dominates the income effect among small-scale households, pushing the net effect to be negative. As Yang and Xu indicate, this substitution effect may distort the allocation of land and labor [9]. Given that small land holdings per farm household are prevalent in China, (for example, the households with small-scale land in this study account for 56% of the total examined), it is important for policy makers to recognize the negative consequences of the substitution effect and pursue policies to mitigate, or even eliminate, this effect.…”

“…In sharp contrast, the coefficient of land endowment in M3 in the group with less land is negative, and statistically different zero. Yang and Xu call this effect the substitution effect [9], which works in the opposite direction of the wealth effect. When the scale of land is too small for technical improvement and the adoption of machinery, agricultural efficiency is relatively low, and more labor needs to be devoted to agricultural production.…”

“…Given that land is one of the major income-generating assets in rural areas, some studies have delved into the impact of land endowment on families' decision-making regarding education. Yang and Xu found that land endowment influences educational decisions in rural areas [9]. The land endowment and educational investment model indicates that when returns on educational investment are uncertain, farmers with more initial land endowment are more willing to invest in their children.…”