RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Forest Tenure Reform in China: A Choice Experiment on Farmers’ Property Rights Preferences
JF Land Economics
JO Land Econ
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 473
OP 487
DO 10.3368/le.87.3.473
VO 87
IS 3
A1 Ping Qin
A1 Fredrik Carlsson
A1 Jintao Xu
YR 2011
UL http://le.uwpress.org/content/87/3/473.abstract
AB Decentralization experiments are currently underway in the Chinese forestry sector. However, researchers and policy makers tend to ignore a key question: what do forest farmers really want from reform? This paper addresses this question using a survey-based choice experiment to investigate farmers’ preferences for various property rights attributes of a forestland contract. We found that farmers are highly concerned with the types of rights provided by a contract. Reducing perceived risks of contract termination and introducing a priority right for the renewal of an existing contract significantly increases farmers’ marginal willingness to pay for a forest contract. (JEL Q51, Q58)