The role of land tenure security in regional rural‒urban migration

This study explores how land tenure security affects rural households’ migration for work, considering different levels of land rental market development across regions of China. Using a nationally representative dataset, we address the limitations of earlier research, which was confined to a few counties or provinces, enabling us to examine the diverse effects of land security across China’s regions. We find that increased land tenure security raises the likelihood of migration and the number of migrants among households in regions with more developed land rental markets in the western part of the country. Conversely, in the eastern region, it decreases both. JEL Classification: J43, Q15, R23