How Does the Heterogeneity of Family Structure Affect the Area of Land Transferred Out in the Context of Rural Revitalization?—Experience from CHIP 2013

Using the sample data of rural households in China’s income survey (CHIP 2013), this paper divides the family structure into elite and incomplete families and analyzes the impact of family structure’s heterogeneity on land transferred out. The Tobit and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) models are applied to achieve the study’s objectives. The results show that the elite family has a significant positive impact on the paid land subcontract area, while the incomplete family is not significant. After further refining the elite families, it is found that the influence of the families with the political status of Party members (non-grassroots cadres) on the land transfer area is more significant, while the influence of the families with the status of grassroots cadres on the land transfer area is less significant. Then, the formation mechanism of the difference between these two is discussed, which may be explained by the heterogeneity of their endowment structure, functions, and livelihood attributes. After a series of robustness tests, the results still show that elite families significantly positively impact the area of land transferred out. Finally, based on the differences in land transfer areas and the consequences of different resource endowments, the corresponding countermeasures and suggestions are put forward from the aspects of strengthening grassroots governance, legal awareness, and establishing and improving the protection mechanism of vulnerable rural groups.