The Impact and Driving Mechanism of the “Three Rights Separation” Reform on the Ecological Efficiency of Cultivated Land Use: A Case Study of China

Balancing food security with ecological sustainability is a critical challenge for global agricultural development. This research explores how China’s “three rights separation” reform influences the ecological efficiency of cultivated land use. This institutional innovation separates ownership, contract, and management rights to improve land resource allocation. Utilizing panel data from China spanning from 2005 to 2023, this study employs a super-efficiency SBM model to evaluate ecological efficiency, a continuous difference-in-differences (DID) framework to identify the causal effects of the reform, and a mediation effect model to explore the underlying transmission mechanisms. The results show that the “three rights separation” reform significantly improves the ecological efficiency of cultivated land use, with a regression coefficient of 0.632 that is statistically significant at the 1% level. The findings remain robust across multiple robustness tests. Mechanism analysis reveals distinct hierarchical transmission pathways through the promotion of non-agricultural labor transfer, the optimization of planting structure, and the advancement of agricultural technological progress. Among these pathways, agricultural technological progress emerges as the primary driver. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis indicates that the positive impact of the reform is more pronounced in non-major grain-producing regions, as well as areas characterized by higher levels of mechanization and land transfer. These results suggest that further deepening land tenure reform is essential, with careful consideration of regional disparities and the mediating role of labor factors, land resource allocation, and technological progress.