Permanent Migration, Land Sales and Informal Risk Coping

Abstract 0

This paper empirically analyses whether permanent rural-urban migrants in Thailand sell or keep their land while away. The literature has barely studied the consequences of rural-urban migration on rural land sale markets in the process of economic transition. The results show that the most vulnerable migrant households are less likely to sell their land, in order to keep part of the “safety net” function embedded in landholding, and to safeguard a possibility of return migration. The results also suggest that social protection policies designed for migrants can have significant consequences on the allocation of rural land and the consolidation of farms in the process of structural transition and massive rural-urban migration. JEL  Classification JEL: 012, 013, 017, 053