Local Residents’ Welfare In Ancient Villages And Towns Under Different Real Estate Property Rights Patterns

Different development patterns based on real estate property rights came into being with the tourism development of ancient villages and towns. In the process, the welfares of local residents become differential due to different interest relationships between various stakeholders in those development patterns.This paper re-defines the concepts of welfare by combing the theories and empirical evidences, and proposes a three-dimensional welfare evaluation system which is "functions-capabilities-justice". Based on relative theories, such as theory of property rights, game theory, welfare economics theory, the mechanism of the effect of property rights patterns on welfares is analyzed.Based on empirical studies in typical ancient villages and towns in Yangtze River Delta, this paper evaluates and analyzes the welfares of local residents in three types of property rights patterns ("own property rights" pattern represented by Jinxi and Zhouzhuang, "centralized property rights" pattern represented by Wuzhen, "incomplete property shares" pattern represented by Lu Xiang and Mingyuewan) from three dimensions. The main findings are as follows.(1) This paper uses fuzzy mathematics comprehensive evaluation method to measure the welfare functions. Welfare functions are classified into five levels of factors (including economic conditions, housing conditions, living circumstances, social security and confidence) and several secondary factors. The weight of each factor is determined by analytic hierarchy process. After separately calculating the welfare functions before and after the tourism developments, this paper finds that all types of welfares rise after tourism development, and the biggest increase is in "own property rights" pattern. In contrast, the purchasing capabilities, neighborhood relationships and job opportunities of local residents are somewhat weakened in "centralized property pattern", and local residents are more dissatisfied about public services in "incomplete property shares" pattern.(2) Based on multiple regression models, the relationships between welfare functions and basic individual abilities in three types of patterns are tested, which could reflect the perfection in the formation process of feasibility ability. This paper finds that the welfare capability of the "own property rights" pattern represented by Jinxi and Zhouzhuang is the highest, which is followed by "incomplete property shares" pattern represented by Lu Xiang and Mingyuewan, and "centralized property rights" pattern represented by Wuzhen. The finding also proves that the stronger the autonomy is, the more perfect the channel of achieving local residents’ welfares is.(3) Regarding welfare justice, the internal gaps of welfare functions are compared by the Gini coefficient. And the procedural justices to achieve welfare in different patterns are analyzed by qualitative methods. The finding is that the internal disparities in welfare functions of local residents in the "incomplete property shares" pattern increase significantly. And from the perspective of procedural justice, all the patterns have negative outcomes. For instance, the gaps generated by primordial problems, such as geographic conditions, could not be narrowed in "own property rights" pattern. The injustices emerging in the process of resettlement may negatively influence the impartiality of local residents’ welfares. And "incomplete property shares" pattern, guided by differentiated policies, may result in a significant stratification between locals.Those findings show that in "own property rights" pattern, the normal channels of welfare fulfilling for local residents are greatest protected, and the supply of public services improves the welfare capabilities, functions and justice overall. In "centralized property pattern", internal gap of welfare function has narrowed, but due to the gaming process during resettlement and compensation, procedural justice is difficult to get. In "incomplete property shares" pattern, due to the implementation of differentiated policies, the justice of welfare is bad. Finally, based on the welfare features under the three patterns, policy implications are proposed.