2026-07-01http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/410410This paper investigates the impact of land tenure insecurity on the migration decisions of China's rural residents. A simple model first frames the relationship among these variables and the probability that a reallocation of land will occur in the following year. After first demonstrating that a village leader's support for administrative land reallocation carries with it the risk of losing a future election, the paper exploits election-timing and village heterogeneity in lineage group composition and demographic change to identify the effect of land security. In response to an expected land reallocation in the following year, the probability that a rural resident migrates out of the county declines by 2.8 percentage points, which accounts for 17.5 percent of the annual share of village residents, aged 16 to 50, who worked as migrants during the period. This finding underscores the potential importance of secure property rights for facilitating labor market integration and the movement of labor out of agriculture.application/pdftext/plainCC BY 3.0 IGOhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ACCESS TO LANDAGRICULTURAL LANDAGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIONAGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITYAGRICULTUREALLOCATION OF LANDBENEFITS OF MIGRATIONBRIDGESCITIESCOMMON PROPERTYCOMMUNITIESCOMPENSATIONCULTURAL CHANGEDEMOCRACYDEMOGRAPHIC CHANGEDEMOGRAPHIC CHANGESDEVELOPING COUNTRIESDEVELOPMENT POLICYDWELLINGECONOMIC ACTIVITYECONOMIC BEHAVIORECONOMIC CHANGESECONOMIC GROWTHECONOMIC HISTORYECONOMICSEDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENTENFORCEMENT MECHANISMSENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIONEQUITABLE ACCESSFAMILY MEMBERSFORESTFORESTSGENDER GAPHETEROGENEITYHIGH SCHOOL EDUCATIONHOUSEHOLD INCOMEHOUSEHOLD LEVELHOUSEHOLD SIZEHOUSEHOLD SURVEYSHOUSINGHUMAN DEVELOPMENTIMPLICATIONS FOR DEVELOPMENTINCOME INEQUALITYINCUMBENTINDIVIDUAL DECISIONSINDIVIDUAL HOUSEHOLDSINSURANCEINTERNAL MIGRATIONINTERNATIONAL MIGRATIONIRRIGATIONKINSHIPKINSHIP GROUPLABOR MARKETLABOR MARKETSLABOR SUPPLYLABOUR MARKETSLAND MARKETLAND RIGHTSLAND TENURELAND TITLELAND TITLINGLAND USELARGE POPULATIONSLOCAL COMMUNITYLOCAL ECONOMYLOCAL POPULATIONLOSS OF LANDMIGRANTMIGRANTSMIGRATION FLOWSMOTHERNUMBER OF DEATHSNUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDSOPEN ACCESSPOINTSPOLICY DISCUSSIONSPOLICY RESEARCHPOLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPERPOLITICAL ECONOMYPOLITICAL SCIENCEPOPULATION CHANGEPROGRESSPROPERTY RIGHTPROPERTY RIGHTSPUBLIC GOODSPUBLIC SERVICESRENTSRESOURCE ALLOCATIONRESPECTROADSRURAL AREASRURAL ECONOMYRURAL RESIDENTSSANITATIONSECURE PROPERTY RIGHTSSOCIAL CONFLICTSSOCIAL SCIENCEUNEMPLOYMENTURBAN AREASURBAN MIGRATIONURBAN SLUMSURBANIZATIONVILLAGESYOUNG MENYOUNG WOMEN