RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Do Secure Land Use Rights Reduce Fertility? The Case of Meitan County in China
JF Land Economics
JO Land Econ
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 36
OP 55
DO 10.3368/le.82.1.36
VO 82
IS 1
A1 Kung, James Kai-sing
YR 2006
UL http://le.uwpress.org/content/82/1/36.abstract
AB Based on the belief that collective landownership is pro-natalist, the Chinese government experimented in a remote southwestern county (Meitan) in 1987 with the practice of freezing land reallocations in response to demographic change for twenty years. Premising on the norm of a two-children family in rural China, evidence suggests that demand for the third child is attributable to strong son preference. Neither secured land rights nor family planning policy can curb such a proclivity. The experiment has, however, stimulated an active land rental market, which may have long-term profound implications for the development of private land rights and fertility behavior. (JEL J13, Q15, P48)