The Impact of Perception of Social Morality Level on Agricultural Land Transfer Behavior: Evidence from China

Abstract

Institutions hold a crucial influence over human behavior and economic development. Using 3791 agricultural land transfer-out households from the 2021 Chinese Social Survey (CSS) data as the research sample, this study employs Logit, IV-Probit, and Heckman models to explore the influence of social morality—a crucial informal institution—on farmers’ land transfer behavior from a cognitive perspective, examining the moderating factors and underlying mechanisms between the two. The findings indicate the following: (1) The perception of social morality level significantly influences land transfer behavior; when farmers perceive lower social morality, their land transfer behavior is inhibited. (2) The perception of the level of rule of law significantly negatively moderates the relationship between perception of social morality level and agricultural land transfer behavior. That is, the negative impact of the perception of social morality level on agricultural land transfer is effectively mitigated as the perceived level of rule of law increases. (3) The suppression of land transfer by perceptions of social morality stems primarily from the significant weakening of social trust, which is a crucial mechanism driving land transfer. By focusing on social morality and adopting a cognitive perspective, this study explores the impact of this informal institution on agricultural land transfer behavior. It holds significant theoretical value for deepening the understanding of informal institutional changes and enhancing the development of agricultural land markets in rural China.

1. Introduction

The transfer of agricultural land is a crucial pathway for revitalizing rural land resources and enhancing the efficiency of land resource allocation [1]. The Chinese government has proposed “implementing a rural revitalization strategy,” with an emphasis on “deepening rural land system reform and developing diverse forms of appropriately scaled operations,” thereby setting clear requirements for the development of the rural land transfer market. As the suppliers to the agricultural land transfer market, the behavioral decisions of land transferors directly impact market development. As the scale of agricultural land transfers continues to expand, farmers have increased their household income through land transfers, simultaneously driving both agricultural and rural development [2,3]. However, this has led to numerous disputes over land transfers caused by issues such as contract breaches, changes in land use, and short-term management practices by land transferees [4]. These issues not only directly result in losses for land transferors, but also severely hinder the sustainable development of the agricultural land transfer market.

Institutions hold a crucial influence over human behavior and economic development. A region’s institutional environment comprises both formal and informal institutions, with social morality serving as one of the primary manifestations of its informal institutional landscape [5]. Some studies confirm that the level of social morality in a region not only provides behavioral norms for individuals but also has a direct impact on cooperation or transactions [6,7,8]. The characteristics of traditional rural China—including its familiar society nature, high mutual dependence, relatively weak formal institutional coverage, deep-rooted traditional culture, and economic fragility—have made social morality and other informal institutions not merely a value proposition but an indispensable social governance mechanism and social adhesive with powerful real-world constraints [9,10]. Previous research indicates that social morality plays a role in defining interpersonal relationships and constraining individual behavior, serving as a key influence in economic activities in Chinese rural areas [11]. Early agricultural land transfers in China predominantly occurred among relatives, friends, and acquaintances, exhibiting distinct relational and moral characteristics [12]. Given the familiarity between parties in rural land transactions, prevailing ethical norms, face-saving considerations, and social reciprocity serve as fundamental safeguards against opportunistic behavior [13].

The Chinese government has consistently prioritized the development of social ethics, particularly since the reform and opening-up. While transformations and advancements in rural ethics have constituted the basis of rural moral development, it should also be noted that alongside overall progress in social ethics, certain ethical lapses have emerged to some extent [14]. The causes of these issues are multifaceted and include the deconstruction of traditional rural societies, the excessive pursuit of material gains, blurred moral evaluation standards amid competing social ideologies, and insufficient transmission and development of social ethics [15]. Concurrently, with the ongoing migration of agricultural labor and the continuous development of the agricultural land transfer market, agricultural land transfers are influenced by distinct profit-seeking and marketization behavior [16]. The scope of agricultural land transfers has gradually expanded beyond familiar circles, with the proportion of transfers between non-acquaintances steadily increasing. As the familiarity between parties involved in land transfers reduces and information asymmetry persists, the constraints of social morality and personal relationships become relatively limited, easily inducing opportunistic and unethical behavior among transferees. Some transferees evade contractual obligations by defaulting on or refusing to pay rent or even absconding to avoid liability [17]. They may arbitrarily alter land use, excessively apply chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and engage in destructive farming practices [18], and upon contract expiration, they may even refuse to return the land or even disrupt the transferor’s livelihood and production [19]. Existing research predominantly focuses on the positive effects of social morality in facilitating and protecting agricultural land transfers, while overlooking the severe challenges posed by its negative effects.

Existing research on social morality and individual behavior also primarily analyzes the impact of social morality itself on individual actions. This analytical approach implicitly assumes homogeneity between society and individuals, overlooking variations in how different individuals perceive social morality. The influence of institutions on individual behavior is also influenced by both the institutions themselves and individuals’ perceptions of the institutional environment. Typically, individuals respond to institutions based on their perceptions of those institutions rather than the institutions themselves [20]. This study focuses on the overall level of social morality rather than its specific content. Adopting a subjective cognitive perspective, it examines the role of social morality levels in farmers’ decisions to transfer agricultural land from a negative angle. Unlike typical factor flows and property rights transactions, agricultural land transfers are not merely economic transactions but also social behaviors. Farmers’ decisions to transfer agricultural land, the scale and quality of transfers, contractual forms, and transfer durations are significantly influenced by social trust [21]. Existing studies have also confirmed that social trust is an important mechanism for reducing transaction uncertainty [22,23]. When people are more inclined to adhere to social morality, the level of trust among members of society becomes higher [24,25]. Therefore, in this study, social trust is incorporated into the analytical framework to explore the mechanism through which perceptions of social morality influence agricultural land transfer decisions. The regional institutional environment also comprises both informal and formal institutional frameworks, which complement and mutually influence each other. Considering that a sound legal environment theoretically constrains individual behavior in agricultural land transfers, as well as reduces the costs of supervising and implementing transaction contracts and provides safeguards for land transfers, this study further analyzes the moderating role of the level of the rule of law between social morality and agricultural land transfer behavior.

The contributions of this study are primarily reflected in the following three aspects: First, by exploring the impact of social morality on farmers’ land transfer behavior from a cognitive perspective, it deepens our understanding of the role of social morality—a crucial informal institution—in China’s agricultural land transfer market. Second, it incorporates the level of rule of law into the analytical framework to examine its mediating role between social morality and agricultural land transfer behavior. This integrates research on both informal and formal institutions in agricultural land transfers, expanding the application of institutional theory in this field. Third, an analytical framework—“perception of social morality level–social trust–agricultural land transfer”—is constructed to clarify the underlying mechanisms through which social morality influences farmers’ decisions to transfer their land.

2. Theoretical Analysis

Based on the characteristics of rural Chinese society and the nature of agricultural land transfer, this section focuses on analyzing the mechanisms through which the perception of social morality level, social trust, and the perception of the level of rule of law influence farmers’ agricultural land transfer behavior. Specifically, the agricultural land transfer behavior discussed in this study refers exclusively to agricultural land transfer-out. The perception of social morality level denotes farmers’ evaluation of the extent to which other members of society adhere to social morality norms; social trust reflects farmers’ assessment of the degree of trust among societal members; and the perception of the level of rule of law refers to farmers’ evaluation of the effectiveness of national legal system development. Building on this foundation, this section first theoretically examines the impact of the perception of social morality level on agricultural land transfer behavior. Subsequently, it analyzes the role of the perception of the level of rule of law in the relationship between the perception of social morality level and agricultural land transfer-out behavior. Finally, by incorporating social trust into the analytical framework, the study elucidates the mechanism through which the perception of social morality level influences farmers’ agricultural land transfer-out behavior.

2.1. The Influence of Perception of Social Morality Level on Agricultural Land Transfer Behavior

Social morality refers to the collective term for widely accepted and followed behavioral norms, value concepts, and ethical standards within a specific social or cultural context [26,27]. It exhibits characteristics such as universality, normativity, transmissibility, adaptability, and pluralism and has been imbued with different meanings across various eras and regions, guiding how people interact and coexist within society [28]. However, social morality is not merely an external code of conduct but also an internal value orientation that influences people’s ways of thinking, emotional responses, and decision-making processes [29,30]. Individuals, influenced by their social morality environment, process and evaluate the moral standards of their society. This evaluation of external social morality is a cognitive construct formed through the brain’s organization, induction, and deduction of information [31,32]. This cognition exhibits unique and diverse characteristics and significantly influences individual behavioral decisions [33]. In this context, individuals’ perceptions of societal moral standards may align with reality or exhibit certain deviations. Therefore, in agricultural land transfers, the effectiveness of societal morality in influencing the behavior of farmers—as the primary participants—depends not only on the level of societal morality itself but also, to a large extent, on farmers’ perceptions of that level.

In this paper, we argue that farmers’ perceptions of social morality influence their assessment of the benefits and risks associated with transferring agricultural land, thereby affecting their decision to transfer such land. Agricultural land transfer constitutes a rational choice for farmers, with individual rational behavior constrained by both personal resources and the external institutional environment. As a crucial component of informal institutions in rural areas, social morality inherently shapes the gains and risks associated with agricultural land transfers. The perceived “risk–reward” of transferring agricultural land is directly linked to their understanding of the social morality environment which exhibits variations between farmers. Specifically, when farmers perceive a high level of social morality, this indicates a larger proportion of individuals generally adhering to social morality norms. This increases the likelihood of farmers following sound behavioral standards, reduces the probability of opportunistic behavior in land transfers, lowers expectations of transfer risks, fosters optimism about transfer benefits, and strengthens farmers’ willingness to transfer land. Conversely, when farmers perceive lower social morality, their rational choice is to seek lower-risk transaction partners. This explains why early agricultural land transfers in China predominantly occurred among relatives and friends—due to the relatively smaller information gaps within these networks. However, when suitable relatives or friends are unavailable, semi-acquaintances or non-acquaintances are chosen as transfer partners. As the agricultural land transfer market continues to develop, the scope of transfer partners is gradually expanding beyond the circle of relatives and friends, and the proportion of transfers occurring between non-acquaintances is steadily increasing. In this scenario, since the parties involved in the transfer are unfamiliar with each other, a significant information gap exists. If farmers perceive overall societal moral standards to be low at this point, their expectations regarding the risks of transferring agricultural land will rise. To avoid risks, farmers may choose to forgo transferring their land. Based on this, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H1. 

Farmers perceive that the lower the level of social morality, the lower the probability of agricultural land transfer.

2.2. The Regulatory Role of the Perception of the Level of Rule of Law

Farmers’ decisions to transfer their agricultural land are influenced not only by perceptions of informal institutional environments such as social morality, but also by perceptions of formal institutional environments like the level of rule of law. The level of rule of law serves as a comprehensive indicator of the effectiveness of legal system development in a country or region. It encompasses the completeness of the legal system, the enforcement capacity of legal implementation, the degree of legal governance in social management, and the prevalence of a rule-of-law culture [34,35]. When a country or region possesses a high level of rule of law, it can provide robust protection for private property and transaction order, reduce disputes in contract formation and enforcement, promote social division of labor and transactions, and thereby stimulate economic growth [36,37]. Substantial empirical evidence has emerged in recent years regarding the crucial role of legal standards in shaping transactional order and economic growth. Some studies identify robust rule of law as a fundamental driver of sustained economic growth [38,39].

The rule of law and social morality play complementary yet distinct roles in economic transactions, jointly providing a framework for economic activities to ensure fair, transparent, and efficient transactional order. Within rural China’s traditional familiar society context, moral mechanisms rooted in geographical ties can, to some extent, curb opportunistic behavior among transaction participants, thereby mitigating the risks associated with agricultural land transfers. However, with rural population outflow and occupational diversification, some regions are gradually transitioning from traditional familiar societies to semi-familiar societies. Interpersonal bonds based on kinship, occupational ties, and geographical proximity are becoming less reliable. As traditional moral norms weaken their constraints on individual behavior, universalistic standards independent of special relationships will become the norm for achieving and protecting transactions. At this point, an enhanced rule of law can counterbalance the risks of agricultural land transfer arising from diminished social morality constraints. In other words, when farmers perceive a higher level of rule of law, this can mitigate the negative impacts arising from diminished social morality constraints to some extent. Based on this, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H2. 

The perception of the level of rule of law negatively moderates the relationship between perception of social morality level and agricultural land transfer behavior.

2.3. The Mediating Role of Social Trust

The preceding analysis indicates that when farmers perceive lower levels of social morality, their willingness to transfer agricultural land decreases due to their risk-averse behavior. Their assessment of transfer risks hinges on expectations regarding opportunistic behavior by the transferee. Social trust, as the willingness of both parties to fulfill their commitments, reflects expectations that others will not engage in opportunistic actions. Therefore, in this study, it is posited that social trust may serve as a crucial mediating mechanism linking perceptions of social morality and agricultural land transfer behavior.

Social trust refers to the degree to which individuals trust others. In rural China, social trust represents a distinctive attitude characterized by strong personal traits. Farmers establish trust mechanisms among themselves through prolonged repeated interactions and cooperation. This unique mechanism helps curb individual opportunistic behavior, enhance cooperation efficiency and collaborative outcomes, and reduce uncertainties in economic activities [40,41]. Numerous prior studies indicate that social trust constitutes the most crucial moral foundation in market economies. Without a functioning social trust mechanism, market mechanisms cannot operate effectively, Distortions in trust mechanisms diminish market orderliness, thereby hindering the healthy development of market economies [42,43]. Thus, social trust serves as both a crucial bond in interpersonal interactions and a vital foundation for economic transactions. In agricultural land transfers, social trust serves as a mutual commitment to rights and obligations between parties. It reflects the expectation that the other party will not engage in opportunistic behavior, functioning as a vital mechanism for facilitating and safeguarding transactions. Consequently, for land transferors, higher levels of social trust reduce expectations of opportunistic transferee behavior and lessen the anticipated losses from transfer risks, thereby increasing their willingness to transfer land.

Social morality and social trust as crucial factors in sustaining relationships among societal members and maintaining order in economic activities, are distinctly different yet intricately interconnected. In terms of their distinctions, social morality is fundamentally a value system and set of ethical principles that regulate the conduct of societal members [44]. It operates through the internalization of individual moral conscience and the external pressure of public opinion. In contrast, social trust is essentially a form of social relationship, established based on positive expectations of others’ behavior or capabilities. The construction of trust relies on the accumulation of interactive experiences between individuals. Regarding their interrelationship, social morality provides the foundation for social trust, while social trust serves as a mechanism for the realization of social morality. Social morality, as the embodiment of behavioral norms and values among members of society, profoundly influences trust between individuals. In economic activities, social morality not only provides guiding principles for individual behavior but also establishes a framework for expected conduct. These norms—including trustworthiness, reciprocity, and responsibility—constitute the fundamental conditions for building trust between individuals. When a society broadly adheres to these ethical norms, individuals can more confidently predict others’ behavior [45]. This reduces uncertainty, increases positive expectations about others’ actions, and fosters the formation of social trust. In environments with higher societal moral standards, interpersonal trust levels also rise. This reduces undesirable behavior such as fraud and contract breaches, making transactions smoother as both parties adhere to commitments and actively follow transaction rules. Conversely, if individuals perceive lower societal moral standards, interpersonal trust diminishes. Others’ behaviors become harder to predict, and the anticipated transaction risks increase. Within the agricultural land transfer market specifically, when farmers perceive higher societal moral standards, their trust in others increases and they anticipate lower losses from transferring land. Conversely, when farmers perceive lower societal moral standards, their trust in others diminishes, they expect land transferors to exhibit opportunistic behavior more often, and they anticipate higher losses from transferring land. Based on this, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H3. 

Perception of social morality level influences farmers’ decisions to transfer agricultural land through social trust.

3. Materials and Methods

3.1. Data Sources

The empirical data utilized in this study are drawn from the Chinese Social Survey (CSS), a comprehensive survey of social conditions in China conducted by the Institute of Sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Initiated in 2005, the CSS was updated annually up to 2021 and represents a large-scale, nationwide, continuous sampling survey project. Employing a biennial longitudinal design, the survey utilizes probability sampling for in-person household interviews. Its coverage spans all 31 provinces/autonomous regions/municipalities directly under the central government, encompassing 151 districts/cities/counties and 604 villages/neighborhood committees. Each wave surveyed 7000 to 10,000+ households, with eight rounds completed to date. The data utilized in this paper are from the 2021 survey. The CSS questionnaire explores the contracted management status of agricultural land, forest land, grassland, and water areas belonging to farmers. The agricultural land transfer referred to herein specifically refers to the transfer of cultivated land. Based on research requirements, samples with no contracted agricultural land areas, and certain missing values were excluded. Ultimately, 3791 farming households were selected as the study subjects.

3.2. Variable Specification

(1) Dependent variable: The dependent variable is the transfer of agricultural land. Agricultural land transfer is divided into transfer-out and transfer-in of agricultural land. The agricultural land transfer behavior studied in this paper specifically refers to the transfer-out of agricultural land. While the CSS questionnaire did not directly ask farmers whether they had transferred agricultural land, it did inquire about the area of agricultural land transferred. If the transferred area was greater than zero, it was considered a transfer and assigned a value of 1; otherwise, it was assigned a value of 0.

(2) Core Variable: The core variable is the perception of social morality level. This study examines the impact of societal moral standards on the transfer of agricultural land from a cognitive perspective, using the public’s rating of societal moral level as an indicator to measure the perception of such standards. This indicator was adopted for the following three reasons: first, numerous existing studies on morality in the literature have used individuals’ evaluations of social morality as a proxy measure [46,47]; second, this indicator can more directly capture individuals’ assessments of social morality level; third, asking individuals to evaluate social morality level is inherently a question that falls within the cognitive domain of investigation. Regarding the scoring of social morality level, the CSS questionnaire includes the following item: “Please rate your assessment of ‘the prevailing moral standards among people in society today’ on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 indicates ‘very poor’ and 10 indicates ‘very good.’” Given that the aim of this study is to primarily examine the impact of social morality level on agricultural land transfer from a negative perspective, the scale values for this item were reversed: 1 indicates “very good,” and 10 indicates “very poor.”

(3) Mediating Variable: The mediating variable is social trust. Social trust refers to the degree to which individuals trust others, i.e., the level of interpersonal trust. The CSS questionnaire includes the following item regarding social trust: Please rate your assessment of “the current level of trust between people” on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 indicates “extremely distrustful” and 10 indicates “extremely trusting.”

(4) Moderating Variable: The moderating variable is the perception of the level of rule of law, a comprehensive indicator. Drawing on existing research, this study uses individuals’ ratings of the rule of law as the metric for measuring perceptions of the rule of law [48]. In the CSS questionnaire, the item assessing individuals’ rule of law level ratings is “On a scale of 1 to 4, how well does the government perform in the following areas?”, with the options including “Combating crime and maintaining public order,” “Integrity in public service and combating corruption,” and “Adhering to the law and ensuring fair law enforcement.” A score of 1 indicates “very poor,” while 4 indicates “very good.” The sum of individual ratings was used for these three options as an indicator of perception of the level of rule of law.

(5) Control Variables: Beyond the core variables, this study also controlled for individual characteristic variables, household characteristic variables, and external environmental variables that may influence the transfer of agricultural land. Individual characteristics include respondent gender, age, and education level; household characteristics encompass household size, presence of household debt, participation in the New Rural Social Pension Scheme, participation in the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme, proportion of non-agricultural income, contracted agricultural land area, and whether agricultural land rights have been legally confirmed. The external environmental variable is the agricultural land contracting method adopted by the respondent’s village. Specific variable definitions and descriptive statistics are presented in

Table 1. Variable definitions and descriptions.

Variable	Variable Definition	Mean	Standard Deviation
Transfer of Agricultural Land	Yes = 1, No = 0	0.221	0.415
Perception of Social Morality Level	1–10 points; 1 indicates “excellent,” while 10 indicates “very poor”	3.494	1.988
Social Trust	1–10 points; 1 indicates “very distrustful,” while 10 indicates “very trusting”	6.508	2.313
Perception of the Level of Rule of Law	Aggregate score for the level of rule of law	9.223	2.128
Gender	Male = 1, Female = 0	0.481	0.500
Age	Respondent age (years)	48.875	13.303
Level of Education	No schooling =1; Elementary school = 2; Junior high school = 3; High school = 4; Vocational high school = 5; Vocational high school/technical school = 6; College major = 7; Undergraduate degree = 8; Graduate degree = 9	2.991	1.628
Number of Household members	(person)	5.021	2.226
Household Borrowing	Yes = 1, No = 0	0.197	0.398
Participation in the New Rural Social Pension Scheme	Yes = 1, No = 0	0.236	0.425
Participation in the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme	Yes = 1, No = 0	0.569	0.495
Non-Agricultural Income Share	Ratio of household non-agricultural income to total household income	0.613	0.371
Area of Agricultural Land Under Contract	Contracted cultivated land area (mu) belonging to farmers	8.498	19.633
Agricultural Land Rights Certification	Yes = 1, No = 0	0.570	0.536
Village Group Agricultural land Contracting Measures	Minor adjustments = 1, Others = 0	0.061	0.239
	Major adjustments = 1, Others = 0	0.067	0.250

.

3.3. Construction of the Measurement Model

The first aim is to examine the impact of the perception of social morality level on the behavior of transferring agricultural land. Since land transfer constitutes a binary variable, a binary Logit model was employed for estimation. The benchmark model is constructed as follows:

$$Y_i={\alpha }_0+{\alpha }_{1}Mo{r}_i+\sum {\alpha }_i{X}_i+{\epsilon }_i$$

(1)

In Equation (1), $Y_i$ represents farmer’s agricultural land transfer behavior; $Mo{r}_i$ represents Perception of social morality level; $X_i$ represents a set of control variables; ${\alpha }_1$ and ${\alpha }_i$ denote estimated coefficients; ${\epsilon }_i$ represents the random error term; and ${\alpha }_0$ indicates the constant term.

Next, to examine the moderating effect of perceptions of the rule of law on perceptions of social morality and agricultural land transfer behavior, we establish a regression model incorporating an interaction term between perceptions of social morality and perceptions of the rule of law, building upon Equation (1). The model is constructed as follows:

$$Y_i={\beta }_0+{\beta }_{1}Mo{r}_i+{\beta }_{2}La{w}_i+{\beta }_{3}Mo{r}_i\times La{w}_i+\sum {\beta }_i{X}_i+{\mu }_i$$

(2)

In this equation, $La{w}_i$ represents farmers’ perceptions of the rule of law; $Mo{r}_i\times La{w}_i$ is the interaction term between social morality perception and rule of law perception; ${\beta }_1$, ${\beta }_2$ and ${\beta }_3$ represent the estimated coefficients; ${\mu }_i$ represents the random error term; and ${\beta }_0$ represents the constant term.

Finally, the mediating effect of social trust on the perception of societal moral standards and the agricultural land transfer behavior will also be explored. Based on a three-step method for testing mediating effects, the following model is constructed based on Equation (2):

$$Tr{u}_i={\gamma }_0+{\gamma }_{1}Mo{r}_i+{\gamma }_{2}La{w}_i+{\gamma }_{3}Mo{r}_i\times La{w}_i+\sum {\gamma }_i{X}_i+{\sigma }_i$$

(3)

$$Y_i={\theta }_0+{\theta }_{1}Mo{r}_i+{\theta }_{2}Tr{u}_i+{\theta }_{3}La{w}_i+{\theta }_{4}Mo{r}_i\times La{w}_i+\sum {\theta }_i{X}_i+{\omega }_i$$

(4)

$Tr{u}_i$ represents the mediating variable social trust; ${\gamma }_i$ and ${\theta }_i$ denote the coefficients of control variables; ${\gamma }_0$ and ${\theta }_0$ denote the constant terms; ${\gamma }_1$ represents the effect of $Mo{r}_i$ on $Tr{u}_i$; and ${\theta }_1$ and ${\theta }_2$ represent the effects of $Mo{r}_i$ and $Tr{u}_i$ on $Y_i$, respectively. If a mediating effect of $Tr{u}_i$ exists, then ${\gamma }_1$ should be significantly negative, ${\theta }_2$ should be significantly positive, and ${\theta }_1$ should be insignificant or significantly negative with a relatively reduced regression coefficient.

4. Results

4.1. Benchmark Regression Results

Table 2. Regression results on the influence of perception of social morality level on agricultural land transfer behavior.

Variable	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3
Perception of Social Morality Level	−0.128 ***	−0.120 ***	−0.313 **
	(0.020)	(0.031)	(0.151)
Perception of the Level of Rule of Law			0.127 **
			(0.060)
Perception of Social Morality Level × Perception of the Level of Rule of Law			0.033 **
			(0.015)
Gender		−0.170	−0.231 *
		(0.130)	(0.131)
Age		0.026 ***	0.026 ***
		(0.007)	(0.007)
Level of Education		0.161 ***	0.168 ***
		(0.048)	(0.050)
Number of Household Members		−0.034	−0.040
		(0.031)	(0.030)
Household Borrowing		0.171	0.175
		(0.159)	(0.161)
Participation in the New Rural Social Pension Scheme		0.021	−0.004
		(0.151)	(0.152)
Participation in the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme		0.061	0.092
		(0.130)	(0.131)
Non-agricultural Income Share		0.875 ***	0.885 ***
		(0.198)	(0.199)
Area of Agricultural Land under Contract		0.003	0.002
		(0.003)	(0.002)
Agricultural Land Rights Certification		−0.050	−0.063
		(0.127)	(0.129)
Minor Adjustments		0.113	0.089
		(0.251)	(0.246)
Major Adjustment		0.100	0.130
		(0.247)	(0.245)
Constant Term	−0.833 ***	−3.544 ***	−5.107 ***
	(0.076)	(0.528)	(0.841)
Pseudo R2	0.010	0.032	0.057
Wald chi2	40.18	59.14	94.64

*, **, and *** denote significance at the 10%, 5%, and 1% levels, respectively; values in parentheses represent robust standard errors.

presents the results of the benchmark regression analysis. In H1, it is posited that when farmers perceive lower levels of social morality, their agricultural land transfer behavior will be inhibited. To test H1, the following regression analyses were conducted. First, we examined the impact of perception of social morality level on agricultural land transfer behavior alone. The estimation results in Model 1 show a statistically significant negative coefficient at the 1% level, indicating that lower perception of social morality level correlates with a lower probability of transferring agricultural land. This provides preliminary support for H1. Subsequently, individual characteristics, household characteristics, and external environment variables were progressively incorporated into Model 1. The estimation results are shown in Model 2. Although the absolute value of the regression coefficient for perception of social morality level changed, its significance and direction of influence did not. This indicates that the impact of perception of social morality level on agricultural land transfer behavior is robust, further supporting H1. This expands the unique factors influencing farmers’ decisions on agricultural land transfers from the perspective of social morality cognition, deepening our understanding of how informal institutional factors affect agricultural land transfers in rural China.

In H2, it is posited that higher levels of rule of law can mitigate the negative impact of perception of social morality level on agricultural land transfer behavior. To test this hypothesis, the interaction term between perception of social morality level and perception of the level of rule of law was incorporated into Model 3. The results indicate that the estimated coefficient for the interaction term between perception of social morality level and perception of the level of rule of law is significantly positive at the 5% level. This suggests that when farmers perceive a higher level of rule of law, the negative impact of perception of social morality level on agricultural land transfer behavior is mitigated, thereby validating H2. This suggests that in the development of agricultural land markets, a sound formal institutional environment can mitigate the negative impact of informal institutional factors to some extent, extending the application of institutional theory in agricultural land market development. Furthermore, after incorporating the interaction term between perceptions of social morality and perceptions of the rule of law, the estimated coefficient for perceptions of social morality remains significantly negative at the 5% level, indicating that its influence on agricultural land transfer is relatively robust.

4.2. Analysis of Impact Mechanisms

The results of the benchmark regression consistently indicate that the lower the perceived level of social morality among farmers, the lower the probability of agricultural land transfer. In H3, it is posited that the perception of social morality influences agricultural land transfer behavior through social trust. To test this hypothesis, a mediation effect model is further employed to analyze the underlying mechanism, elucidating how the perception of social morality affects farmers’ decisions to transfer agricultural land. The estimation results of the mediation effect model are presented in

Table 3. Analysis of influence mechanisms: mediating effect estimates.

Variable	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3
Perception of Social Morality Level	−0.313 **	−0.696 ***	−0.287 **
	(0.151)	(0.060)	(0.153)
Perception of the Level of Rule of Law	0.127 **	0.054	0.119 **
	(0.060)	(0.037)	(0.059)
Perception of Social Morality Level ×Perception of the Level of Rule of Law	0.033 **	0.013 *	0.033 **
	(0.015)	(0.007)	(0.015)
Social Trust			0.056 **
			(0.028)
Control Variables	Control	Control	Control
Constant Term	−4.853 ***	8.115 ***	−5.531 ***
	(0.753)	(0.477)	(0.875)
Pseudo R2/R-squared	0.057	0.310	0.058
Wald chi2/F	94.64	75.87	95.76

*, **, and *** denote significance at the 10%, 5%, and 1% levels, respectively; values in parentheses represent robust standard errors.

.

First, we examined the impact of perception of social morality level on social trust, with the results shown in Model 2. The estimated coefficient for perception of social morality level is significantly negative at the 1% level, indicating that a lower perception of social morality level correlates with lower social trust among farmers. This demonstrates that interpersonal trust is profoundly influenced by societal moral standards. Next, perceptions of social morality and social trust were simultaneously incorporated into the regression analysis in Model 3. The results indicate that social trust is significantly positive at the 5% level, suggesting social trust promotes agricultural land transfer. Concurrently, perceptions of social morality remain significantly negative at the 5% level, though their negative impact on agricultural land transfer behavior has weakened. Regarding the significance and impact of relevant variables, social trust mediates the relationship between perception of social morality level and agricultural land transfer behavior. Specifically, farmers’ perceptions of social morality influence agricultural land transfer behavior through social trust, validating H3. This clarifies the mechanism by which social morality influences farmers’ agricultural land transfer decisions via social trust, offering new insights for effectively promoting agricultural land market development.

The stepwise regression method was employed to test mediation effects. When the dependent variable is a dichotomous variable, mediation tests using stepwise regression may be influenced by the “masking effect,” potentially affecting the test results. Therefore, the SPSS 26.0 macro program developed by Preacher and Hayes [49] was utilized in this study, and the Bootstrap test method was applied to conduct a robustness test on the results obtained from the stepwise regression method. If the 95% confidence interval for the indirect effect from the Bootstrap test does not encompass “0,” the mediating effect is significant. The test results show that the confidence interval for the indirect effect is [−0.059, −0.008], which does not include zero. The z-value for the indirect effect test is −2.533, with a p-value of 0.011, indicating that the indirect effect is statistically significant at the 5% level. These findings confirm that social trust mediates the influence of perception of social morality level on agricultural land transfer in a robust manner.

4.3. Robustness Test

4.3.1. Endogeneity Issues

Estimates of the impact of perceptions regarding societal moral standards on agricultural land transfer behavior may suffer from endogeneity issues. This could stem from two potential causes: first, certain omitted variables (such as farmers’ social circles or psychological states) may simultaneously influence both their evaluations of societal morality and their decisions to transfer agricultural land, thereby creating endogeneity, and second, perceptions of social morality represent individual subjective evaluations, with differing interpretations among farmers potentially introducing measurement errors. To address this, we further employed an IV-Probit model for regression analysis. Drawing from relevant research [50], we selected the mean perceived level of social morality within the farmer’s provincial region as the instrumental variable for individual perceptions of social morality. The rationale behind this is that social morality exhibits regional characteristics, with provinces typically sharing similar languages, customs, and cultures. Concurrently, with the migration of agricultural labor, many farmers are increasingly seeking employment beyond their home counties or cities. Thus, the perceptions of social morality of other farmers within the same province influence their own perceptions of social morality without directly affecting their land transfer decisions. Thus, the provincial average can serve as an instrumental variable in the model, overcoming endogeneity issues. The regression results of the IV-Probit model are presented in

Table 4. Robustness test 1: instrumental variables approach.

Variable	Phase 1	Phase 2
Perception of Social Morality Level		−0.313 ***
		(0.121)
Average Perception of Social Morality Levels in the Province Where Farmers Reside	1.010 ***
	(0.147)
Control Variables	Control	Control
Constant Term	0.729	−0.947
	(0.603)	(0.576)
Wald test of exogeneity chi2 = 4.56	Prob > chi2 = 0.033

*** denote significance at the 1% levels; values in parentheses represent robust standard errors.

. The first-stage model features the perceived level of social morality as the dependent variable, while the second-stage model features the transfer of agricultural land as the dependent variable.

The estimation results of the first-stage model indicate that the mean perception of social morality level in the province where farmers reside is highly correlated with the endogenous variable of farmers’ perception of social morality level. Furthermore, the LR test for the first-stage model rejects the null hypothesis, confirming the absence of weak instrumental variable issues. The second-stage model estimation results indicate that perception of social morality level exerts a significant negative effect on agricultural land transfer. The p-value of the Wald test for the exogeneity null hypothesis is 0.033, confirming that perception of social morality level can be considered an endogenous variable at the 5% significance level. Compared with the results of the benchmark regression Model 2 in Table 2 above, after addressing endogeneity using the IV-Probit model, the absolute value of the regression coefficient for social morality awareness significantly increased, while maintaining the same direction of significance. This indicates that ignoring endogeneity would lead to underestimations of the impact of social morality awareness on agricultural land transfer behavior.

4.3.2. Replacement of the Moderating Variable Measure

In the preceding discussion, public ratings of the rule of law served as an indicator of perceptions of the rule of law, analyzing how these perceptions influence the transfer of agricultural land by affecting perceptions of social morality. The level of rule of law represents a comprehensive reflection of a nation or region’s achievements in legal governance. It encompasses not only the government’s administration according to law and the judiciary’s impartial administration of justice, but also the extent to which laws are widely observed by society’s members. In this paper, individual evaluations of other members’ compliance with laws and regulations were employed as a substitute indicator for perceptions of the rule of law to conduct robustness tests.

Table 5. Robustness test 2: replacing moderator variables.

Variable	Model 1	Model 2
Perception of Social Morality Level	−0.357 **	−0.327 **
	(0.141)	(0.142)
Perception of the Level of Rule of Law	0.057	0.050
	(0.067)	(0.066)
Perception of Social Morality level × Perception of the Level of Rule of Law	0.045 ***	0.046 ***
	(0.017)	(0.018)
Social Trust		0.058 **
		(0.028)
Control Variables	Control	Control
Constant Term	−4.283 ***	−4.733 ***
	(0.785)	(0.818)
Pseudo R2/R-squared	0.054	0.056
Wald chi2/F	78.97	80.94

** and *** denote significance at the 5%, and 1% levels, respectively; values in parentheses represent robust standard errors.

presents the regression results after replacing the moderator variable with an alternative measure. Model 1 tests the robustness of the moderating effect of perception of the level of rule of law, while Model 2 examines the robustness of social trust’s mediating role after substituting the moderator variable. The results in Table 5 indicate that the study’s hypotheses remain supported even after replacing the moderator variable’s measure, demonstrating the strong robustness of the research conclusions.

4.3.3. Estimation Bias Assessment

In this study, estimation bias is mitigated to some extent while controlling for individual characteristics, household attributes, and external environmental variables that may influence agricultural land transfer behavior during the regression analysis. However, unobservable variables may still affect estimation outcomes. To address this issue, the potential estimation bias caused by unobservable variables is calculated using observable variables, following the steps outlined by Altonji et al. [51]: First, two sets of regressions were constructed. The first set (Constrained Control Group, Group A) excludes or includes only a few control variables, with the coefficient of the core variable denoted as ${\alpha }_A$. The second set (Full Control Variable Group, Group B) incorporating all control variables, with the core variable coefficient denoted as ${\alpha }_B$. Next, the value of statistic F is calculated using the formula $F=\left|\left.{\alpha }_B/({\alpha }_A-{\alpha }_B)\right|\right.$. From this, it follows that the smaller the absolute value of ${\alpha }_A-{\alpha }_B$, the closer the coefficients of the core variables in both groups are. This indicates that the controlled variables have a smaller impact on the estimation results. At this point, altering the current conclusion would require considering more control variables. Conversely, the larger the value of ${\alpha }_B$, the greater the potential influence of unobservable variables that may need to be controlled to affect the robustness of the existing estimation results. Accordingly, if the F value exceeds 1, the estimation results are relatively robust, with a larger F value indicating that unobservable factors cause less bias in the estimation results. Based on this testing method, four sets of regressions were conducted to examine the magnitude of F under four different scenarios. The regression results are presented in

Table 6. Robustness test 3: results of potential estimation bias.

	Constrained Control Group (Group A)	Full Control Variable Group (Group B)	F Value
1	Without controlling variables	Including all control variables in Table 2, Model 3	1.692
2	Including only individual characteristic variables	Including all control variables in Table 2, Model 3	1.694
3	Including only household characteristic variables	Including all control variables in Table 2, Model 3	1.657
4	Adding only external environment variables	Including all control variables in Table 2, Model 3	1.698

.

As shown in Table 6, the F values calculated under the four scenarios in this paper range from 1.657 to 1.698, with an average of 1.685. All F values exceed 1. In other words, to enhance the robustness of model estimates in the benchmark regression, the number of unobservable variables would need to be at least 1.657 times the number of control variables used in this study. However, this scenario is unlikely to occur. It can be concluded that the estimation bias in the benchmark regression is minimal, and the estimation results are robust.

4.4. Further Discussion

The above empirical findings indicate that perceptions of societal moral standards significantly influence the transfer of agricultural land, confirming the impact of informal institutional factors on the development of the agricultural land market. Does the Perception of social morality level further affect the scale of agricultural land transfers by households? To address this, further empirical analysis was conducted to examine whether perceptions of societal moral standards influence the scale of agricultural land transfers.

Using the area of transferred agricultural land as an indicator to measure the scale of agricultural land transfer, regression analysis was conducted on a subsample of 863 households that transferred land. The regression results are shown in

Table 7. Regression results on the impact of perception of social morality level on the area of transferred agricultural land.

Variable	Model 1	Model 2
		Phase 1	Phase 2
Perception of Social Morality Level	−0.511 ***	−0.042 *	−0.837 **
	(0.127)	(0.022)	(0.401)
Control Variables	Control	Control	Control
Constant Term	7.088 ***	−2.359	−5.713
	(2.336)	(0.308)	(13.920)
Wald chi2/F	3.32	58.38
Rho/R2	0.185	0.771
sigma		7.221

*, **, and *** denote significance at the 10%, 5%, and 1% levels, respectively; values in parentheses represent robust standard errors.

, Model 1. These results indicate that the coefficient for perception of social morality level is significantly negative at the 1% level. This suggests that lower perception of social morality level among farmers correlates with smaller-scale agricultural land transfers, preliminarily confirming that perception of social morality level exerts a significant negative influence on the scale of agricultural land transfers. However, the two aspects—agricultural land transfer behavior and transfer scale—may involve “simultaneous decision-making” or be influenced by unobservable factors. Analyzing the impact of perception of social morality level on transfer scale alone may introduce sample selection bias. Therefore, a Heckman model was further employed to simultaneously estimate the effects of perception of social morality level on both agricultural land transfer behavior and scale. The estimation results are shown in Table 7 Model 2. In the first stage, we estimated the impact of perception of social morality level on the decision to transfer agricultural land. The results indicate a significant negative correlation between perception of social morality level and the decision to transfer agricultural land, consistent with previous findings and further validating the robustness of prior research conclusions. In the second stage, we estimated the impact of perception of social morality level on the scale of agricultural land transfer, with the results indicating a significant negative correlation between perception of social morality level and the scale of agricultural land transfer. After accounting for sample selection bias, the influence of perception of social morality level on both the decision to transfer agricultural land and the scale of such transfers was further validated.

5. Discussion

The transfer of agricultural land is a crucial factor enhancing the efficiency of agricultural land allocation, achieving agricultural modernization and revitalizing rural industries [52]. This study explains social morality—a unique influencing factor in agricultural land transfers—from a cognitive perspective, expanding the application of institutional theory in this field [53,54,55]. This study holds significant importance for re-examining the current state and trends in the development of China’s agricultural land transfer market.

(1) Strengthening the promotion of social morality and education, as well as establishing effective trust mechanisms, are crucial prerequisites for fostering the development of the agricultural land market. As key components of informal institutions, social morality and social trust possess distinct characteristics while being interdependent. Social morality, as a normative system, provides behavioral guidelines and institutional safeguards for individual conduct and economic activities. Social trust, as a relational construct, reduces transaction risks by mitigating uncertainties. Only through an interactive model where morality serves as the foundation and trust functions as the mechanism can these two elements collectively sustain order in the agricultural land transfer market, mitigate risks associated with agricultural land transfer, and promote the development of the agricultural land market. The mechanism by which cognition influences behavior is complex [56]. Promoting and enhancing the education of sound social ethical norms, improving farmers’ understanding of these norms, and enabling social ethics to exert a positive influence can help farmers form favorable expectations regarding social ethics. This, in turn, reduces the risks associated with agricultural land transfers and fosters a sound framework for agricultural land transfers. However, this process faces significant challenges. Alongside the large-scale migration of agricultural labor, rural China’s traditional familiar-face society is gradually transforming. Occupational diversification has altered farmers’ livelihoods, leading to a gradual decline in traditional moral norms. Geographical fragmentation has further reduced interactions among villagers, while the diminishing intimacy and familiarity have further weakened the foundation of interpersonal trust in rural communities [57]. Against this backdrop, it is worthwhile to explore how to strengthen the construction of social morality and establish effective trust mechanisms, thereby providing a sound informal institutional environment for the agricultural land transfer market and advancing rural revitalization.

(2) Enhancing the rule of law is crucial for ensuring the standardized development of the agricultural land transfer market. Many countries implement private land ownership systems, which have led to frequent agricultural land ownership transactions and high marketization levels, where most land transfers are secured by formal contracts. In China, agricultural land is governed by a collective ownership system, where transfers do not involve ownership transactions but rather the transfer of land use rights or management rights. Although the marketization of China’s agricultural land transfer is steadily advancing, numerous informal transfers persist and when disputes arise, it is difficult to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the transferring party. Without a robust legal environment, agricultural land transfers risk descending into disorder, ultimately harming farmers’ interests and undermining sustainable agricultural development. When informal systems fail, the intervention of formal institutions like the law is crucial for maintaining order in agricultural land transfers. Enhancing the rule of law helps standardize transactions. By clarifying property rights and strengthening contractual enforceability, the transaction costs of agricultural land transfers are reduced, the efficiency of land resource allocation improves, farmers’ property incomes increase, and their legitimate rights and interests are safeguarded. Strengthening institutional weaknesses directly activates farmers’ willingness to transfer land. The continuous optimization of the legal environment will promote the standardized development of the rural land market and will directly motivate agricultural modernization.

(3) The development of the agricultural land transfer market and the establishment of a sound institutional environment remain long and arduous journeys. Agricultural land transfers have long been regarded as a crucial component for achieving appropriate-scale operations, enhancing agricultural competitiveness and modernization. While trends in China’s agricultural land transfer market indicate significant increases in transfer rates and marketization levels, it remains difficult to determine whether the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. This is because the move toward standardization and marketization implies rising land rents, increased agricultural operating costs, and the “deconstruction” of traditional rural communities built on personal connections [58]. This trend may adversely impact both the maintenance of rural governance order and agricultural competitiveness. Therefore, it is imperative to establish a sound institutional environment in which social ethics are deeply integrated with market rules and legal safeguards. This will foster a transfer ecosystem grounded in integrity, fairness, and responsibility, thereby forming a better balance between the relationships among the agricultural land transfer market, agricultural development, and rural governance.

(4) The influence of social morality on agricultural land transfer is a complex and dynamic process. Based on a cognitive perspective, this study explores the impact of social morality—an important informal institution—on farmers’ agricultural land transfer-out behavior, while also examining contingent factors and underlying mechanisms. However, the use of cross-sectional data in this study limits the ability to capture dynamic changes in farmers’ perception of social morality level and their land transfer behavior over time. Future research should focus on investigating the dynamic effects of the perception of social morality level on land transfer behavior using panel data from a temporal dimension. Furthermore, while this study verifies the mediating role of social trust in the relationship between the perception of social morality and land transfer behavior, it does not delve into the interactive effects between social trust and the perception of the level of rule of law. Therefore, subsequent research should strengthen the study of how the interplay between different types of institutional perceptions influences individual behavior, thereby expanding the analytical framework of institutional theory.

6. Conclusions

This study adopts a cognitive perspective and utilizes data from the China General Social Survey to empirically analyze the impact of perception of social morality level on farmers’ decisions to transfer agricultural land. An analytical framework, entitled “perception of Social morality level–social trust–agricultural land transfer”, is constructed, exploring the intrinsic influence mechanism of social morality level on farmers’ land transfer behavior. This study also incorporates the factor of legal system standards–social trust–agricultural land transfer analytical framework to explore the underlying mechanisms through which social morality level influence agricultural land transfer behavior in farmers. The factor of rule of law is also incorporated into the analysis to examine its role in mediating the relationship between social morality level and agricultural land transfer behavior. By integrating research on both informal and formal institutions to study agricultural land transfers, this study expands the application of institutional theory in agricultural land transfer research. The final conclusions are as follows:

(1) The perception of social morality level significantly influences farmers’ decisions to transfer agricultural land. When farmers perceive lower social morality, their willingness to transfer land is inhibited. This conclusion remained robust after conducting sensitivity tests using instrumental variables and Heckman models. Further analysis confirms that social morality not only significantly influences farmers’ decisions to transfer agricultural land but also affects the scale of such transfers. This expands the unique factors influencing farmers’ land transfer decisions and deepens our understanding of how informal institutional factors shape agricultural land market development in rural China.

(2) The perception of the level of rule of law significantly moderates the influence of social morality on agricultural land transfer behavior and significantly negatively moderates the relationship between perception of social morality level and agricultural land transfer behavior; that is, the negative impact of perception of social morality level on agricultural land transfer is effectively mitigated as the perceived level of rule of law increases. This conclusion remained valid after robustness testing using the method of replacing the moderator variable. This finding affects research on both informal and formal institutions in agricultural land transfers and expands the application of institutional theory in agricultural land transfer studies.

(3) Social trust plays a significant mediating role in the influence of social morality level on agricultural land transfer behavior. By introducing social trust as a key variable and constructing an analytical framework (“perception of Social morality level–social trust–agricultural land transfer”), this study empirically examines the underlying mechanisms through which social morality influences farmers’ land transfer decisions. The findings indicate that perception of social morality level inhibits land transfers primarily by significantly weakening social trust, which itself serves as a crucial mechanism driving agricultural land transfers.