Does Cultivated Land Transfer Have a Significant Income‐Increasing Effect on Farmers? A Perspective on Urban‐Rural Factor Mobility

In urban‐rural integrated development, cultivated land transfer‐in is an important mechanism for optimizing the allocation of rural land resources and may affect farm household income through multiple channels. From the perspective of urban‐rural factor mobility, this study uses survey data from 389 farm households in Northeast China and employs a mediation model to examine how land and capital factor allocations mediate the impact of cultivated land transfer‐in on farm household income. The results show that: (1) Cultivated land transfer‐in has a positive effect on total household and operating income, but a negative effect on wage income; moreover, its income effects exhibit household‐level heterogeneity. (2) Cultivated land transfer‐in indirectly increases total household income and operating income by increasing the average cultivated land plot size and alleviating household financial constraints; furthermore, the mediating effect of average plot size is significantly larger than that of financial‐constraint alleviation. (3) For small‐scale households, household income does not change significantly as a result of cultivated land transfer‐in; however, for large‐scale households and family farms, cultivated land transfer‐in significantly increases total household income and operating income. Therefore, optimizing the cultivated land transfer market mechanism, innovating rural financial products, and establishing a mechanism for the two‐way flow of urban‐rural factors are important pathways for promoting farmers' income growth.