How Land Transfer Contracts Affect Farmers' Investment Behaviour-based on Survey Data of 991 Rural Households in five Provinces in China

As a product of rural economic development to a certain stage, land transfer plays a key role in the scale, intensification and modernization of agricultural business model, however, some of the transferring farmers in the long term due to the "free-rider" thinking and refused to invest in infrastructure, which is not conducive to the goal of sustainable development and the process of modernization of agriculture.Therefore, it is of great theoretical and practical significance to analyze the path and effect of land transfer contract on the investment behavior of farmers. Based on the survey data of 991 rural households in five provinces, namely Shaanxi, Hebei, Liaoning, Guangdong and Yunnan, this paper measures the effect of land transfer contract on farmers' long-term investment by using the propensity score matching (PSM) method from the three dimensions of profitability, stability and formality of the land transfer contract. It is found that paid, written, fixed-term land transfer contracts significantly increase the investment behaviour of farmers compared to unpaid, oral, non-fixed-term ones. Therefore, by optimizing the form and content of contracts, strengthening policy support and financial innovation and other measures, we can effectively stimulate farmers' enthusiasm for investment and promote the development of agriculture to a higher quality and higher efficiency.