The Influence of New Agricultural Business Entities on Farmers’ Employment Decision

The purpose of this article is to explore the influence of new agricultural business entities on farmers’ employment decision and provide reference for improving policies related to new agricultural business entities and farmers’ employment. This paper constructs a theoretical analysis framework of “new agricultural business entities—land transfer and purchase of agricultural socialized services—farmers’ employment decision”, and then empirically tests the impact of new agricultural business entities on farmers’ employment decision by combining the analysis methods of the benchmark regression, propensity score matching and mediation effects. The research shows that: (1) New agricultural business entities are beneficial for promoting farmers’ employment decision. (2) Renting out land and the purchase of agricultural socialized services have a positive and partially mediating effect between the new agricultural business entities and farmers’ employment decision, and the mediating effects of the two paths account for 7.12% and 6.25% of the total effects, respectively. (3) In addition to key variables, personal characteristics of decision-making, family characteristics and production and management characteristics are also key factors that affect farmers’ employment decision. (4) The new agricultural business entities increase the probability of farmers’ employment (with legal contract) and entrepreneurship, and reduce the idle labor force in rural areas. Finally, this study proposes some policy recommendations including establishing a perfect farmland transfer market, developing rural industry properly and improving agricultural socialized service systems.