Understanding Property Transitions: The Emergence of Rural Land Markets in China

There are two basic accounts of property rights change: evolutionary emergence andpolitical design. Evolutionary accounts apply a basic cost-benefit analysis to predictthe evolution of property rights towards efficient institutional forms. Political designnarratives describe the emergence of property through interest group interactionand the exercise of political power. This project tests theories of property changethrough a study of emerging rural land markets in China. It collects data from pilotprojects on transfers of rural land rights in Shuangliu County, Chengdu SichuanProvince and Nanhai County, Foshan, Guangdong Province. The project provides anoriginal contribution to the literature on property rights through a study oftransitions from collective arrangements to tradable individual rights to land in ruralChina.