中国城乡转型中的农村土地集体产权与流转配置效率

Collective Property Rights of Rural Land and theAllocative Efficiency of Land Transfer During Urban-rural Transition in China

土地规模经营是中国农业走向现代化的必经之路,但在当前中国城乡转型的现实中实现起来还面临不少困难。本文基于中国“大国小农”的农村土地分配国情以及城乡转型中的土地流转特性,尝试说明为什么单纯靠自由流转市场不易完全实现土地这种位置固定的特殊要素的高效流转配置,阐明集体所有制在提高土地流转配置效率上具备的潜在优势及其作用条件,为其充分发挥相应作用提供科学支撑。文章首先对城乡转型中农村家庭联产承包责任制的演进及效率含义进行了梳理,分析了自由流转市场在流转配置小规模细碎化土地方面面临的高昂交易成本以及因此产生的土地低效率使用等问题,然后指出土地集体所有制下的村集体——作为土地所有权的拥有者,可以方便通过土地置换、连片流转和整理等措施,在实现连片规模经营方面发挥应有的作用,也可通过充当天然的“土地流转中介”降低流转交易成本,亦或通过充当“土地银行”把零碎、短活期的“存入”土地转变为规模化、长期稳定的“贷出”土地,从而改善土地流转配置效率。“解铃还须系铃人”,在小规模细碎化的农村土地分配格局下实现长期稳定的规模化流转经营,恰当的选择是在继续坚持并创新完善土地集体所有制的基础上,稳妥充分发挥其应有作用。当然,这种作用的发挥以行之有效的治理体系为条件。

Scale land operation is a necessary path for China’s agriculture to modernize, but it still faces many difficulties in the current reality of China’s urban-rural transition. Based on land distribution with a huge number of small farmers and the characteristics of land transfer during the urban-rural transition in China, this article attempts to explain why it is difficult to achieve allocative efficiency of land, which is a special element with a fixed location simply by relying on the free transfer market. The study explores the potential advantages of and the conditions for the role of collective ownership in improving allocative efficiency through rural land transfer, which provides scientific support for giving full play to the role of collective land ownership in scale operations of agriculture. The study reviews the evolution of the household contract responsibility system and its implication for efficiency during the urban-rural transition and analyzes the high transaction costs faced by the free market in transferring and allocating small-scale and fragmented land and the resulting inefficient use of land. The study argues that village collectives as the owners of rural land can play a proper role in facilitating the contiguous scale operation by land exchange, contiguity and integrity.Village collectives also can reduce transaction costs by acting as a natural “land transfer intermediary”, and improve the allocative efficiency of land transfer by acting as “land banks” to turn fragmented, short-term “deposit” land into large-scale, long-term, stable“loan” land. To achieve long-term and stable large-scale operations of agriculture under the distribution pattern of small-scale and fragmented rural land, the appropriate choice is to give full play to the collective ownership of rural land based on continuing to adhere to it and improve it.The effective role is conditional on an effective governance system.