What drives different governance modes and marketization performance for collective commercial construction land in rural China?

Abstract

The collective commercial construction land (CCCL) reform in China has attracted considerable attention worldwide, but studies on the influencing factors and performance of governance modes for CCCL marketization are still in their infancy. First, by deconstructing CCCL, this study developed a conceptual framework from the perspective of transaction cost economics. Based on a series of surveys, interviews, and closed questionnaires in two pilot areas, this study determined the influencing factors for governance mode choice for CCCL marketization through comparative case studies and compared the performance of the government‐led and self‐organized modes. This study concluded that asset specificity, uncertainty, and frequency were the main influencing factors for transaction costs, which could influence the choice of governance mode for CCCL marketization. Moreover, the characteristics of the two aforementioned governance modes, transaction costs, and specific revenue distribution resulted in different marketization performances.