Resources or Capital?—The Quality Improvement Mechanism of Precision Poverty Alleviation by Land Elements

Abstract

With China facing the challenges of fragmentation, multidimensionality, and the dynamics of relative poverty under the present situation, more attention is being paid to the role of land in poverty alleviation. In order to improve the quality of precision in poverty alleviation, it is urgent to clarify the micromechanisms of precision poverty alleviation methods that utilize land elements. On the basis of panel data from 29 provinces from 2010 to 2016, this research uses a panel vector autoregressive model to empirically analyze the mechanisms of interaction among land resource endowment, land capital endowment, and rural poverty. The research results show that the improvement of land resource endowment has had a relatively prominent effect on short-term poverty reduction, while the improvement of land capital endowment has had a relatively longer-term effect on the improvement of rural poverty. Land capital endowment and rural poverty can constitute a positive, cumulative circular effect, which can play a sustainable role in improving poverty. The increase in land resource endowment has a positive effect on land capital endowment, but excessive increases in land capital endowment were found to have a negative effect on land resource endowment. Therefore, the implementation of land element resource-based and capital-based poverty alleviation policies can distinguish between shorter-term and relatively longer-term goals, enabling a more accurate improvement of the quality of poverty alleviation. At the same time, this approach is more sustainable, since it makes full use of the circular effect constituted by land capital endowment and rural poverty. However, attention should be paid to preventing damages to land resource endowment, which can be caused by the excessive capitalization of land.