Regional Heterogeneity in China’s Rural Collectively Owned Commercialized Land Market: An Empirical Analysis from 2015–2020

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

1. The impression is good, thanks for your article. As I read, the following questions arose:

2. Are there any adjustments to the terms of the transaction? Discount for urgency, plot size? Line 87 96

3. Why is the weight of a player in the market determined only by the number of trades and the ratio of the player's average trade price to the most expensive trade of all? Line 114-118

4. Figure 3. The graphical unit of measurement is not displayed

5. Line141-142 Why are rules equally important? Do they have varying degrees of influence?

6. Line 214-223, too much description of statistical information, it can be displayed in the form of graphs. In the text I would like to see only the analysis

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

This is important research relevant beyond China, worth expanding into a longer monograph/book. That would allow some scope for improvement, or at least directions for further research. My suggestions:

Methodology:

- More discussion needed of quality of data sources (any differences in collection methods?), and basis for selecting the pilot areas.

- More discussion of the local situation in the pilot areas, and local historical factors.

- More discussion of local institutional factors (eg variation in functioning of ‘villagers’ self-governance organizations’. An ANT (actor network theory) approach would improved understanding of local leadership and professional actors (especially relevant for mention of local corruption), expanding on ‘degree of universality, professionalism, and legality of different implementation players’ mentioned.  

- Time frame period for research is relatively short and reforms still recent, a longer time frame would be helpful in locating the reforms in context.

- China has benefit of a centralized system for land management and statistical data collection; how do quality control mechanisms operate, eg further detail of decentralized property rights and ‘imperfect trading rules’?

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx