Hazards of Expropriation: Tenure Insecurity and Investment in Rural China

S-Tier
Journal: American Economic Review
Year: 2002
Volume: 92
Issue: 5
Pages: 1420-1447

Score contribution per author:

2.681 = (α=2.01 / 3 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We use household data from northeast China to examine the link between investment and land tenure insecurity induced by China's system of village-level land reallocation. We quantify expropriation risk using a hazard analysis of individual plot tenures and incorporate the predicted "hazards of expropriation" into an empirical analysis of plot-level investment. Our focus is on organic fertilizer use, which has long-lasting benefits for soil quality. Although we find that higher expropriation risk significantly reduces application of organic fertilizer, a welfare analysis shows that guaranteeing land tenure in this part of China would yield only minimal efficiency gains.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aecrev:v:92:y:2002:i:5:p:1420-1447
Journal Field
General
Author Count
3
Added to Database
2026-01-25