Economics Analysis On Transferable Land Quotas

The land management law, revised in 1998, sets a plan mode of land resource configuration by general land use planning to realize the strategy object of total farmland dynamic balance. It is intended to restrain extensive land use, farmland decreasing sharply and farmland quality rapid degradation, protect the limited farmland and guarantee the national food security. The local government (county level and above government), who is the key player in the progress of farmland conversion, has the collective land requisition right and state land granting right, so the farmland conversion regulation policy and the requirement of total farmland dynamic balance under the plan mode restrict the farmland conversion right essentially. So, the local government takes a series of creative policy to configurate the land resource in a market mode in the county level according to the regulation. It includes zhedi quotas repayable transfer, basic farmland and farmland requisition-compensation balance in other palce within the region.The use efficiency of farmland conversion is as important as farmland protection. Actually, it reaches the social optimal configuration of farmland when efficiency and protection realize simultaneously. Can the plan mode of the central government or the market mode of the local government reach the social optimal configuration?The paper analyzed the zhedi quotas transaction and farmland conversion regulation policy, further research the economic effect and theoretical significanve of the policy based on the normative and positive economics analysis. The conclusions are reached finally. First, the zhedi transaction policy improves the use efficiency of farmland conversion, promotes the local economic development within the region and also leads to excessive farmland occupation and farmland quality degradation, which threats the food security. Second, the farmland protection has strong external effect. Neither mode will realize the object of farmland protection for the external effect. However, the plan mode is more unfavorable for its low use efficiency.What'more, the paper explores the mixed mode of land resource configuration in order to find a way to internalize the externality of farmland protection.