Aging Agricultural Workforce and Changes in Decision-making of Farmland Transfer:From the Perspective of Intergenerational Transfer of Decision-making Power of Household Contracted Farmland
Changes in household farmland transfer decisions are essentially a reallocation of labor and land resources.Based on the perspective of intergenerational transfer of decision-making power over household contracted farmland,this paper examines the impact of aging agricultural la-bor on household farmland transfer-out decisions and its mechanisms using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study(CHARLS)covering four periods from 2011 to 2018.We find that aging agricultural labor increases and then decreases the probability and area of household transfer-out farmland,and the impact on household transfer-out decisions is presen-ted with the shape of inverted U.The mechanism analysis shows that the agricultural behavior of family members significantly inhibits the decision to transfer farmland out,and the aging of agricul-tural labor is not only a strong constraint on farmers'own agricultural behavior,but also signifi-cantly promotes the subgeneration.The impact of aging on the farming behavior of farmers and their offspring jointly determines the age threshold for the transfer of decision-making power over contract farmland.When farmers'age is less than the threshold,the crowding-out effect of aging on their own farming behavior dominates,otherwise,the transfer of decision-making power over contract farming takes place,and the promotion effect of aging on the farming behavior of the off-spring plays a major role.Further analysis shows that aging,on the one hand,weakens farmers'own health and forces them out of agricultural production;on the other hand,the care needs arising from increasing age drive offspring back to the countryside,increasing the probability of offspring farming.This paper has important implications for the enhancement of medical care for the aging population in rural areas,the release of the rural demographic dividend and the orderly and healthy development of the farmland transfer market.
AgingTransfer-out farmlandDecision-making power over farmlandIntergener-ational transfer
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