作者：Yanyuan Zhang; Chen Yang; Yumeng Zhang; Jia Li
题名：Property rights and cultivated land quality: Evidence from China's Rural Collective Property Rights System reform
期刊：Journal of Rural Studies，2026
摘要：Economic policy reforms have the potential to transform the socioeconomic conditions of rural households, thereby significantly influencing sustainable land use practices and soil conservation decisions. This analysis explores the effect of China's Rural Collective Property Rights System Reform (RCPRSR) upon cultivated land quality, with a focus on its dual influence on individual behavior and collective action. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) is employed to quantify spatiotemporal dynamics of soil erosion across Chinese counties over the 2012–2019 period. The staggered difference-in-differences (DID) model is utilized to identify the impact of RCPRSR on soil erosion. Results indicate that RCPRSR significantly reduces soil erosion, thereby enhancing cultivated land quality. Moreover, the effects of RCPRSR display notable regional disparities, with more evident improvements observed in non-major grain-producing regions, high relief regions, and regions that experienced high pre-reform soil erosion. Mechanism analysis indicates that RCPRSR improves cultivated land quality through two pathways: promoting the farmers' adoption of land conservation technologies and facilitating scale operation, and strengthening collective action in the development and ongoing maintenance of agricultural water conservancy infrastructure. These findings provide empirical evidence from a property rights perspective and offer valuable references for similar regions worldwide to improve land quality and facilitate sustainable agricultural development.
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