Rural Land Transfer Contract:Types,Problems And Governance Mechanism

The establishment of the household contract responsibility system realized the separation of rural land ownership and contract management rights(“two rights”),which stimulated the broad enthusiasm of farmers and led to the rapid growth of grain output and agricultural output value;however,with industrialization and the development of urbanization,a large number of rural surplus labor forces are transferred to cities and towns.The separation trend of rural land ownership,contracting rights and transfer rights(“three powers”)is becoming more and more obvious.The unique property rights structure has become prerequisites in the flow of land.In the collection of rural land property rights,ownership is at the core position and belongs to the collective.Farmers owe contractual management rights and the transfer right is at the bottom,Such property rights arrangements increased the uncertainty in the process of circulation.Clarifying the land property structure and evolution clearly is conducive to a deeper understanding of the reasons behind.This paper sorts out the changes in land property rights after 1949 in stages,and discussed the issues of the transfer rights and the problems they face.In recent years,the issue of rural land circulation has received sufficient attention.However,the situation of land transfer efficiency is not optimistic in reality: The transfer is mainly limited to the internals of farmers,the problem of non-standardization is prominent,and there is no substantial change in the way of land use and large-scale production;in recent years,more companies actively participate in rural land transfer,the property rights structure,the asymmetry of information,and farmers' risk aversion preference have caused huge transaction costs in the process;Enterprises often reach "hidden contracts" with local governments when entering to the farmland market,which becomes neglected problems in circulation.Trading problems can often reach the purpose of reducing transaction costs and improving efficiency through different forms of contracts,which also provides new ideas for studying rural land transfer problems.This paper uses the analytical framework of contract theory to analyze the transfer problem.Discussed the impact of uncertainties and the degree of asset specificity have played on the transaction costs in detail and paid attentions to the “hidden contracts” problem.Explained the mechanism of self-enforcement of relational contracts from three aspects :the interconnection of "relational" social transactions,the long-term trading behavior,and the ethics and disciplinary punishment.Demonstrated many challenges the regular contract faced from the completeness of the contract content and the requirements for the strength of the third party implementation.The participation of local government has alleviated the challenges,but the “hidden contracts” has also objectively caused damage to farmers and enterprises.Recognizing the problems in the circulation contract can also provide solutions for the future transfer of agricultural land.At the end of this paper,advices are given to promote the contract applicability in order to smooth the development of the transaction...