Pension Insurance Participation and Farmland Transfer-Out Behavior: Evidence from the China Rural Revitalization Survey (CRRS)

In the absence of an integrated urban–rural social security system, farmland in China is not merely a factor of production; it also performs a social security function. This means that peasant households do not allocate farmland entirely according to market principles, thereby constraining farmland transfer. Theoretical analysis indicates that when farmland’s security function is replaced by institutional or commercial social security, peasant households become more inclined to transfer farmland in a market-oriented manner, which helps improve transfer efficiency. Empirical analysis based on data from the 2022 China Rural Revitalization Survey (CRRS) yields three findings. First, participation in pension insurance is positively associated with peasant households’ transfer-out of farmland. Second, heterogeneity analysis shows that the stronger peasant households’ dependence on farmland’s security function—as among households with heads aged older than 60, with education in the lower-education group, or in the unhealthy group—the stronger the positive association between pension insurance participation and farmland transfer. Third, mechanism analysis shows that pension insurance participation facilitates peasant households’ tendency to transfer farmland in a market-oriented manner: insured peasant households transfer more farmland to enterprises and other large-scale operators and are more likely to use formal contracts. Overall, insured peasant households are more willing to transfer farmland to less familiar operators that may also use it more efficiently. Accordingly, the supply of institutional social security for rural residents should be strengthened, and policies should be introduced to encourage peasant households to participate in commercial social insurance.