The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in farmland rent prices between land transferors and different transferees when considering the quality supervision cost of the transferred farmland. Moreover, the impact of the intervention of township governments, village committees, and other intermediary organizations on the rent price differences is also taken into consideration. The treatment effect model (TEM) and grouping regression model were used. The results showed that: (1) Owing to the different transaction costs, when leasing to village transferees, the land rent was significantly lower than when leasing to non-village transferees. (2) With the intervention of intermediary organizations, such as township governments and village committees, the constraints of the reputation mechanism between acquaintances were weakened, and the cost of information identification when land transferors searched for out-of-town transferees was reduced. As a result, the differences in land rent when transferring to the village and non-village transferees were narrowed. This study presents a different view to explain the transaction characteristics of the rural land transfer market in China. Further, it is of paramount importance to implement an effective public intervention, including strengthening the intermediary role of township governments and village committees, which is conducive to improving the rural land transfer market of most developing countries, including China.

In many countries, along with rising rural labor transfer, the problem of rural domestic sewage discharge is becoming increasingly serious due to labor shortages in the villages. It is urgent to solve the environment pollution and health problems of residents which is caused by the massive discharge of domestic sewage in rural areas. Based on the survey data collected from Nanjing Agricultural University in 2020, this paper employs the ordered probit model and the CMP method, to empirically test the impact of non-agricultural employment and regional choice on farmers’ domestic sewage discharge behavior and the moderating effect of environmental cognition and the social network. The results show that: (1) There is a significantly positive correlation between non-agricultural employment and farmers’ sewage treatment behavior. (2) Environmental cognition significantly improves the participation of urban non-agricultural employment farmers in sewage treatment, and the social network has a significant role in promoting the adoption of sewage treatment behavior of local non-agricultural employment farmers. (3) Further heterogeneity analysis results show that the inhibitory effect of urban non-agricultural employment on random sewage discharge is more pronounced than that of local non-agricultural employment. Therefore, in order to effectively solve the problem of rural domestic sewage discharge, it is necessary to actively guide the sewage discharge behavior of non-agricultural employment households, strengthen the social network interaction within the village, and increase the publicity for sewage discharge knowledge.

The marketization of transfer rent is an important symbol of the development of the farmland factor market. At present, the price formation mechanism of rent in China’s farmland market is not perfect. Based on the theoretical analysis starting with the post transaction cost of leasers, this paper uses 1648 farmland transfer samples collected by the China Land Economic Survey (CLES) in 2020, and employs OLS, 2SLS and CMP methods to empirically test the impact of relationship governance on transfer rent and the role of third-party (including county and township governments and village committees) intervention on the change in relationship governance pattern and rent decisions. The results show that the close relationship between the two sides of transfer represents the strong relationship governance functioned by the constraints of the trust and reputation mechanism, which can reduce the post transaction cost. Additionally, the two sides play a game on this part of the transaction cost, making the transfer rent lower than the market price. Furthermore, the involvement of third parties such as county and township governments and village committees in the transfer has replaced the role of relationship governance in reducing transaction cost, and changed the relationship governance pattern of acquaintance society, which makes the transfer rent close to the market price.

China’s agriculture is increasingly becoming more specialized. However, specialized production has disrupted traditional farming culture and may threaten sustainable mental health. This study takes Chinese farmers’ subjective happiness and agricultural production outsourcing as the research object, in an attempt to reveal the possible unhappy impacts of Chinese-style agricultural specialization represented by agricultural production outsourcing. First, we construct a theoretical framework of the relationship between agricultural production outsourcing and farmers’ subjective well-being. Secondly, based on more than 3800 household survey data collected by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2020, we use the classical econometrics and psychological analysis methods such as the Ordered Probit model and the instrumental variable estimation to conduct a rigorous impact assessment. The results show that for every doubling of agricultural outsourcing expenditure, the probability that farmers think they are very happy decreases by about 21%, and the probability that they think they are relatively happy decreases by about 9%. The groups affected by the negative psychological impact mainly include farmers growing rice and corn, farmers in hills and mountains, and farmers with small-scale operations. Further analysis shows that outsourcing risks, the weakening of farmers’ professional autonomy, and family split caused by agricultural outsourcing bring unhappiness, and the increase in income cannot offset the negative psychological effect of outsourcing. The findings of this study may bring inspiration to other countries with agricultural outsourcing markets and programs to improve the national subjective well-being.