Speaker: Huang Kaixing, School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences, PKU

Time: 10:00-12:00 a.m., February 23, 2024, GMT+8

Venue: 249, Chengzeyuan, PKU

Abstract: 

This study finds that a hybrid property structure outperforms pure private or pure public ownership in terms of grassland conservation after a land tenure reform in China. The tenure reform introduced a mix of ownership systems to replace public ownership and led to a significant 5.4% increase in grassland quality on average. The grassland quality increase is twice as large for private grassland with additional access to public grassland compared to those without such access. Interestingly, public grassland quality did not decline, indicating sustainable utilization by herders. We develop a conceptual framework to reconcile these findings, demonstrating that private ownership increases the uncertainty related to the damage of natural disasters such as adverse climatic shocks, which could be abated by nomadic herding when there is additional access to public grassland. We further provide empirical supports and show that the gains from public grassland access are substantially larger when there are adverse climatic shocks. Our study provides important policy implications for property rights and sustainable grassland management under more frequent climate events.

Source: National School of Development, PKU