Gains or Losses? The Impact of China’s land Tenure Reform on Farmers’ Livelihood Capital

To address the challenges of population loss, vacant housing, and the single-source livelihood income in rural China, the government has initiated a reform of the rural homestead system, to curb rural hollowing-out and population aging, and has significant impacts on rural development and farmers’ livelihoods. Based on the Sustainable Livelihood Framework (SLF) and survey data from typical pilots, this study explores the underlying mechanism of the rural homestead system reform and examines how the transfer of homestead use rights (THUR) influences farmers’ livelihood capital. We found that THUR has a significant positive impact on farmers’ livelihood capital. Besides, different transfer modes have distinct impacts on farmers’ livelihood capital. Overall, this study provides a new theoretical and empirical perspective on the relationship between rural land reform and farmers’ livelihood capital, filling the research gap in this field, and offering solutions for other developing countries to improve rural families’ livelihood capital through land reform.