土地租佃与经济效率

Land Tenancy and Economic Efficiency

自耕农制度公平而具有效率,租佃制度下佃农受到地主的剥削且效率较低,这一传统主流成说受到史实与理论的质疑。在自由市场的情况下,地权结构取决于交易费用以及制度总盈余的高低。本文利用最优所有权结构理论分析自耕农、租佃和雇工的制度总盈余,认为土地最优经营规模、技术水平、土地禀赋、市场状况等都会影响地权结构的选择,自耕农并不一定是最优的。随后统计方法检验了农产品市场化程度、运输成本以及土地经营规模和地权分散程度对租佃率的影响。将近代自耕农与佃农的生产规模、利润等指标进行统计和比较后发现,租佃经济在很多方面表现出优势,其原因在于租佃制使土地的资产功能和生产要素功能分离,使土地经营面积不受土地产权面积的制约,并且也实现了对耕者的择优。

One dominant economic concept in China states that yeomanry is the most efficient and equitable land tenure system while tenancy system not only causes landlord to exploit tenant farmers but also leads to low production efficiency. How- ever, this essay questions the arguments for a yeomanry system. Appling the theory of optimal ownership structure on farms, this essay discusses the total surpluses of different land ownership structures, yeomanry, wage contract, tenancy （ share contract and fixed rental contract）, and argues that the optimal land ownership structure can vary with the optimal operational scale, techno- logical development,land quality, market development, etc. Quantitative analysis shows that in pre-modern China, higher tenan- cy rates appear in places with more developed markets, lower transportation costs, larger operational scale of land and smaller average ownership scale of land. In the comparison between tenants and yeomen of pre-modern China, tenancy economy shows its advantage in many aspects, such as production scale and profits. Reasons of tenaney＇s advantage are then discussed with the support of some cases.