Household Health and Cropland Abandonment in Rural China: Theoretical Mechanism and Empirical Evidence
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Theoretical Analysis
3. Data, Variables, and Method
3.1. Data Source
3.2. Variables
3.2.1. Dependent Variable
3.2.2. Independent Variable
3.2.3. Control Variable
3.3. Method
4. Results
4.1. Descriptive Statistics by Relationship
4.2. Empirical Results
4.2.1. The Impacts of Household Health on Cropland Abandonment
4.2.2. The Impacts of Household Health on Cropland Abandonment by Gender Composition
5. Discussion
6. Conclusions and Implications
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Variables | Definition | Mean | SD |
---|---|---|---|
Dependent variable | |||
Cropland abandonment | The share of cropland abandonment in total cropland (%) | 7.06 | 22.74 |
Independent variable a | |||
Household health | The share of healthy members in household (%) | 86.34 | 23.51 |
Female health | The share of healthy female members in household (%) | 68.75 | 29.68 |
Male health | The share of healthy male members in household (%) | 73.87 | 26.95 |
Land variables | |||
Scale | Per capita of cropland area (mu a /person) | 1.67 | 1.97 |
Quality | 1 if abandoned cropland is poor; 0 otherwise | 0.03 | 0.16 |
Registration | 1 if cropland is officially registered; 0 otherwise | 0.41 | 0.49 |
Transfer | 1 if household rents out cropland; 0 otherwise | 0.71 | 0.45 |
Householder variables | |||
Education | 1 if householder has a high school education or above; 0 otherwise | 0.12 | 0.32 |
Age | Age of householder (years) | 53.81 | 13.24 |
Household variables | |||
Size | Number of total household members | 4.61 | 2.21 |
Off-farm employment | The share of off-farm labors in total labors (%) | 40.01 | 38.54 |
Successor | 1 if the next generation of householder is engaged in agriculture; 0 otherwise | 0.08 | 0.27 |
Agricultural assets | Per capita of current market value of all the agricultural assets that a household possesses (104 RMB a/person) | 0.08 | 0.53 |
Fixed assets | Per capita of current market value of all the fixed assets that a household possesses (104 RMB a/person) | 4.32 | 16.75 |
Location variables | |||
Distance | Distance from households to the nearest business center (Km) | 7.12 | 9.18 |
Density | Village population density (number/Km2) | 140.68 | 134.30 |
Urbanization | The share of urban households in total households with same county in sample (%) | 11.63 | 20.69 |
Plain | 1 if village is located in plain; 0 otherwise | 0.40 | 0.49 |
Hill | 1 if village is located in hill; 0 otherwise | 0.35 | 0.48 |
Mountain | 1 if village is located in mountain; 0 otherwise | 0.25 | 0.43 |
Model (1) | Model (2) | Model (3) | Model (4) | Model (5) | Model (6) | Model (7) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Household health | −3.8768 *** | −3.7719 *** | −3.3716 *** | −3.5376 *** | −2.9961 *** | −2.1950 *** | −0.0015 *** |
(0.4706) | (0.7612) | (0.6852) | (0.8048) | (0.7681) | (0.8059) | (0.0005) | |
Land size | 5.6424 | 5.4644 | 6.5960 | 4.9781 | 0.0034 | ||
(7.1495) | (6.9465) | (6.9483) | (6.5851) | (0.0061) | |||
Land quality | 212.5419 *** | 211.9371 *** | 208.7084 *** | 205.8077 *** | 0.1388 *** | ||
(10.6958) | (10.7877) | (10.6689) | (10.3069) | (0.0094) | |||
Land registration | 9.8939 | 10.7815 * | 9.1641 | 9.4428 | 0.0064 | ||
(6.3402) | (6.4307) | (6.2380) | (6.3351) | (0.0041) | |||
Land transfer | −86.0644 *** | −86.3041 *** | −98.0307 *** | −95.5968 *** | −0.0644 *** | ||
(7.6719) | (7.7422) | (7.7928) | (7.6508) | (0.0053) | |||
Householder education | 12.8480 | 5.3303 | 5.0150 | 0.0034 | |||
(9.2065) | (8.8146) | (8.8114) | (0.0059) | ||||
Householder age | −2.8156 ** | −3.5955 *** | −3.5315 *** | −0.0024 *** | |||
(1.2364) | (1.1916) | (1.1949) | (0.0008) | ||||
Householder age2 | 0.0218 * | 0.0308 *** | 0.0332 *** | 0.0000 *** | |||
(0.0121) | (0.0111) | (0.0112) | (0.0000) | ||||
Household size | 6.1363 *** | 4.5353 *** | 0.0031 *** | ||||
(1.6149) | (1.6397) | (0.0010) | |||||
Off-farm employment | 0.6996 *** | 0.6649 *** | 0.0004 *** | ||||
(0.1003) | (0.1018) | (0.0001) | |||||
Farm successor | −11.7624 | −12.6754 | −0.0085 | ||||
(11.0098) | (10.8160) | (0.0074) | |||||
Ln(Agricultural assets) | −61.3466 *** | −70.2677 *** | −0.0474 *** | ||||
(21.9725) | (22.0746) | (0.0168) | |||||
Ln(Fixed assets) | −5.0069 | −6.4852 * | −0.0044 * | ||||
(3.5757) | (3.5607) | (0.0025) | |||||
Distance | 0.1254 | 0.0001 | |||||
(0.2690) | (0.0002) | ||||||
Population density | −0.1450 *** | −0.0001 *** | |||||
(0.0239) | (0.0000) | ||||||
Urbanization | −0.3144 ** | −0.0002 ** | |||||
(0.1538) | (0.0001) | ||||||
Hill | 12.7579 | 0.0086 | |||||
(8.0849) | (0.0056) | ||||||
Mountain | 17.6559 * | 0.0119 * | |||||
(9.2314) | (0.0065) | ||||||
Province dummies | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Wald test of exogeneity | 48.8958 *** | 17.4689 *** | 16.3676 *** | 14.8112 *** | 9.7939 *** | 3.9856 ** | - |
Observation | 8031 | 8031 | 8031 | 8031 | 8031 | 8031 | 8031 |
Model (1) | Model (2) | Model (3) | |
---|---|---|---|
Household health | −0.1554 ** | −0.0211 ** | −0.0162 *** |
(0.0727) | (0.0095) | (0.0057) | |
Land variables | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Householder variables | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Household variables | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Location variables | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Province dummies | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Observation | 8031 | 8031 | 8031 |
Model (1) | Model (2) | Model (3) | |
---|---|---|---|
Female health | −0.0011 *** | −0.0015 *** | −0.0033 *** |
(0.0002) | (0.0003) | (0.0005) | |
Male health | −0.0013 *** | −0.0004 | −0.0020 |
(0.0002) | (0.0003) | (0.0014) | |
Land variables | No | No | Yes |
Householder variables | No | No | Yes |
Household variables | No | No | Yes |
Location variables | No | No | Yes |
Province dummies | No | Yes | Yes |
Wald test of exogeneity | 337.8985 *** | 101.1544 *** | 41.5459 *** |
Observation | 7581 | 7581 | 7581 |
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Share and Cite
Deng, X.; Zeng, M.; Xu, D.; Wei, F.; Qi, Y. Household Health and Cropland Abandonment in Rural China: Theoretical Mechanism and Empirical Evidence. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 3588. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16193588
Deng X, Zeng M, Xu D, Wei F, Qi Y. Household Health and Cropland Abandonment in Rural China: Theoretical Mechanism and Empirical Evidence. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2019; 16(19):3588. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16193588
Chicago/Turabian StyleDeng, Xin, Miao Zeng, Dingde Xu, Feng Wei, and Yanbin Qi. 2019. "Household Health and Cropland Abandonment in Rural China: Theoretical Mechanism and Empirical Evidence" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16, no. 19: 3588. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16193588