Cultivated land market in rural China: A case study in Hebei province, China

China´s economy is experiencing rapid urbanization involving a large number of migrants from rural areas to urban areas who leave their cultivated land idle. A well-functioning cultivated land market is needed to increase the efficiency of land as a production factor. The purpose of this study is to investigate the cultivated land market in rural China based on a case study in Hebei, a province in northern China, and try to examine the institutional constraints of cultivated land market. It is concluded that, with the off-farm employment opportunities being controlled consistently, the tenure security status and general unavailability of local social security are two institutional constraints. The household´s endowment also is an explanatory variable of farmers´ behavior pattern in the land market.