Payments for Ecological Restoration and Internal Migration in China: the Sloping Land Conversion Program in Ningxia Payments for Ecological Restoration and Internal Migration in China: the Sloping Land Conversion Program in Ningxia

This paper analyses the impact of the Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP) on rural labor migration in China. We use recent survey data from Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and a difference-indifference approach to assess the impact of the policy on labor migration decision. We find a significant effect of the policy: the migration probability increase due to the SLCP policy amounts to 17.5 percentage points in 2008. Furthermore, we highlight the role of policy duration in strengthening the impact of the program on migration. We also find that young, male and Hui nationality individuals are more likely to be impacted by the policy.

[1]  J. Bishop,et al.  Market-based Mechanisms for Forest Conservation and Development: Stefano Pagiola, Natasha Landell-Mills, and Joshua Bishop , 2012 .

[2]  Zhigang Xu,et al.  China’s Sloping Land Conversion Program: Does Expansion Equal Success? , 2010, Land Economics.

[3]  S. Démurger,et al.  Return Migrants: The Rise of New Entrepreneurs in Rural China , 2010 .

[4]  Runsheng Yin,et al.  China’s Primary Programs of Terrestrial Ecosystem Restoration: Initiation, Implementation, and Challenges , 2010, Environmental management.

[5]  Shunbo Yao,et al.  An Empirical Analysis of the Effects of China’s Land Conversion Program on Farmers’ Income Growth and Labor Transfer , 2010, Environmental management.

[6]  Guangming He,et al.  Factors affecting land reconversion plans following a payment for ecosystem service program , 2009 .

[7]  Jianguo Liu,et al.  Ecological and socioeconomic effects of China's policies for ecosystem services , 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[8]  Sven Wunder,et al.  Selling two environmental services: In-kind payments for bird habitat and watershed protection in Los Negros, Bolivia , 2008 .

[9]  S. Wunder,et al.  Designing payments for environmental services in theory and practice: An overview of the issues , 2008 .

[10]  J. Pretty,et al.  Case study of agri-environmental payments: The United Kingdom , 2008 .

[11]  Michael T. Bennett,et al.  China's sloping land conversion program: Institutional innovation or business as usual? , 2008 .

[12]  Juan Manuel Torres,et al.  Paying for the hydrological services of Mexico's forests: Analysis, negotiations and results , 2008 .

[13]  A. Mol,et al.  Payment for Environmental Services: The Sloping Land Conversion Program in Ningxia Autonomous Region of China , 2008 .

[14]  S. Rozelle,et al.  Conservation Payments, Liquidity Constraints, and Off‐Farm Labor: Impact of the Grain‐For‐Green Program on Rural Households in China , 2008 .

[15]  Francis M. Epplin,et al.  Biorefinery Feedstock Production on Conservation Reserve Program Land , 2007 .

[16]  S. Wunder.  The Efficiency of Payments for Environmental Services in Tropical Conservation , 2007, Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology.

[17]  Joe Dewbre,et al.  The Impact of Coupled and Decoupled Government Subsidies on Off‐Farm Labor Participation of U.S. Farm Operators , 2006 .

[18]  Erik J. O'Donoghue,et al.  Risk and farm operator labour supply , 2006 .

[19]  Fredrich Kahrl,et al.  Local impacts and responses to regional forest conservation and rehabilitation programs in China's northwest Yunnan province , 2005 .

[20]  Zhong Zhao.  Migration, Labor Market Flexibility, and Wage Determination in China: A Review , 2005 .

[21]  S. Rozelle,et al.  Grain for Green: Cost-Effectiveness and Sustainability of China’s Conservation Set-Aside Program , 2005, Land Economics.

[22]  S. Pagiola,et al.  Can Payments for Environmental Services Help Reduce Poverty? An Exploration of the Issues and the Evidence to Date from Latin America , 2005 .

[23]  Ran Tao,et al.  China's Sloping Land Conversion Programme Four Years on: Current Situation, Pending Issues , 2004 .

[24]  Ashok K. Mishra,et al.  Labor Supply by Farm Operators Under “Decoupled” Farm Program Payments , 2004 .

[25]  Jintao Xu,et al.  Sloping Land Conversion Program:Cost-effectiveness,Structural Effect and Economic Sustainability , 2004 .

[26]  A. Janvry,et al.  A Tale of Two Communities: Explaining Deforestation in Mexico , 2003 .

[27]  Sascha O. Becker,et al.  Estimation of Average Treatment Effects Based on Propensity Scores , 2002 .

[28]  Paul J. Ferraro,et al.  Direct Payments to Conserve Biodiversity , 2002, Science.

[29]  Dana L. Hoag,et al.  Environmental indices and the politics of the Conservation Reserve Program , 2001 .

[30]  Yaohui Zhao,et al.  Leaving the countryside: rural-to-urban migration decisions in China. , 1999 .

[31]  J. Cooper,et al.  The Effect of Rental Rates on the Extension of Conservation Reserve Program Contracts , 1998 .

[32]  Budy P. Resosudarmo,et al.  The impact of environmental policies on household incomes for different socio-economic classes: The case of air pollutants in Indonesia , 1996 .

[33]  Oded Stark,et al.  Migration incentives migration types: the role of relative deprivation. , 1991 .

[34]  R. Evenson.  Time Allocation in Rural Philippine Households , 1978 .

[35]  J. Chemali,et al.  Summary and discussion of “ The central role of the propensity score in observational studies for causal effects , 2014 .

[36]  Andreas Kontoleon,et al.  Relaxing rural constraints: a ‘win-win’ policy for poverty and environment in China? , 2010 .

[37]  R. Yin,et al.  An integrated assessment of China's ecological restoration programs , 2009 .

[38]  B. Sianesi,et al.  PSMATCH2: Stata module to perform full Mahalanobis and propensity score matching, common support graphing, and covariate imbalance testing , 2003 .

[39]  Philip L. Martin,et al.  Human capital: Migration and rural population change , 2001 .