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Labor force rural-urban migration will lead to changes to the land use patterns of farmers. Using the survey data on dynamic migration of the Chinese labor force in 2014, iv-probit and iv-tobit models were used to analyze the impact of labor migration on the land transfer of farmers. The results show that: (1) Off-farm employment would significantly impact land transfer of farmers and the results are robust. With every 10% increase in the proportion of off-farm employment of farmers, the average probability of rent-in land of farmers decreases by 1.55%, and the average transfer in land area of farmers decreased by 1.04%. Similarly, with every 10% increase in the proportion of off-farm employment of farmers, the average probability of rent-out land of farmers increases by 4.77%, and the average transfer out land area of farmers increases by 3.98%. (2) Part-time employment also has a significant impact on land transfer of farmers, but the impact of part-time employment on land transfer in is not robust. Specifically, with every 10% increase in part-farm employment, the average probability of rent-out land of farmers increases by 7.64%, and the average transfer out land area of farmers increases by 6.85%.

Sichuan is a province in Southwest China that is famous worldwide for its earthquakes. However, few quantitative studies in China have probed the correlations between rural households’ financial preparation, disaster experience, and disaster-risk perception. Using survey data of 327 rural households from four areas stricken by the Wenchuan Earthquake and Lushan Earthquake in Sichuan, the ordinary least square (OLS) method was used to quantitatively explore the correlations between these three factors. The results show that rural households’ total family cash income, asset diversity, and whether rural households can borrow money from relatives and friends whenever there is a catastrophe such as an earthquake are significantly negatively correlated with the probability of disaster occurrence. Asset diversity and whether rural households can borrow money from banks whenever there is a catastrophe such as an earthquake are significantly positively related to the severity of disaster occurrence. The severity of residents’ disaster experience is not significantly correlated with the probability of disaster occurrence, but is significantly positively related to the severity of the disaster. The research results can provide useful enlightenment for the improvement of financial preparedness and disaster risk management for rural households in earthquake-stricken areas.

For effective communication and management of disaster risks, it is important to explore how media exposure and disaster experience related to earthquake events affect residents’ prospect ranks of disaster risk perceptions. Using survey data from 327 households located in the Wenchuan and Lushan earthquake regions in China, the ordinary least square method was used to explore the associations among media exposure, severity of disaster experience, and residents’ perception of prospect ranks of the possibility and severity of disasters. The results showed the following. (1) Rural households relied predominately on television broadcasts from traditional media, and on mobile phones and internet content from new media to obtain disaster information. From the residents surveyed, 90% believed that a disaster experience was serious, 82% considered that another major earthquake would seriously affect their lives and property, while approximately 40% of the residents did not believe there would be another major earthquake in the next 10 years. (2) Media exposure was negatively correlated with the perceived prospect ranks of the probability and severity of disasters, with traditional media exposure significantly negatively correlated with the perceived prospect ranks of the severity of disasters and new media exposure significantly negatively correlated with the perceived prospect ranks of the probability of disasters. Severity experience was significantly and positively correlated with the perceived prospect ranks of the probability and severity of disasters. (3) New media exposure moderated the relationship between residents’ disaster experience and their perception of prospect ranks of the severity of disasters. This study can help deepen our understanding of disaster risk communication and better guide the practice of disaster risk management.

Based on survey data from 327 rural households in the areas affected by the Wenchuan Earthquake and Lushan Earthquake in Sichuan Province, this study systematically analyzed disaster risk perception, sense of place, evacuation willingness, and relocation willingness among residents in these earthquake-stricken areas. Further, this study constructed an ordinal logistic regression analysis to probe the correlations between residents’ disaster risk perception or sense of place and evacuation willingness and relocation willingness, respectively. The results showed that (1) faced with the threat of earthquake disasters, residents have a strong willingness to evacuate and relocate. Specifically, 93% and 78% of the residents in the Wenchuan Earthquake and Lushan Earthquake areas were willing to evacuate and relocate, respectively, whereas 4% and 17% of the residents were unwilling to evacuate and relocate, respectively. (2) Place dependence and the severity of disaster occurrence were significantly positively correlated with residents’ evacuation willingness, while the interaction term between place dependence and the severity of disaster occurrence was negatively related to residents’ evacuation willingness. Specifically, when everything else remains constant, every one-unit increase in place dependence and severity corresponds to increases in the odds of willingness to evacuate by factors of 0.042 and 0.051, respectively; every one-unit increase in place dependence × severity corresponds to a decrease in the odds of willingness to evacuation by a factor of 0.004. (3) Place identity was significantly negatively correlated with residents’ relocation willingness, while place dependence and severity of disaster occurrence were positively related to residents’ relocation willingness. The interaction term between place dependence and the severity of disaster occurrence as well as the interaction term between place identity and severity of disaster occurrence were significantly negatively correlated with residents’ relocation willingness. Specifically, every one-unit increase in place identity corresponds to a decrease in the odds of willingness to relocate by a factor of 0.034, while every one-unit increase in place dependence and severity corresponds to increases in the odds of willingness to relocate by factors of 0.041 and 0.028, respectively, and every one-unit increase in place dependence × severity and place identity × severity corresponds to decreases in the odds of willingness to relocate by factors of 0.003 and 0.003, respectively.

There are many important factors to consider when creating robust, regional disaster prevention systems. These include rural households’ knowledge and reported skills of earthquake disasters, disaster risk perception, awareness of disaster risk reduction, willingness to purchase insurance, and willingness to relocate to avoid disasters. However, few empirical studies have systematically established the theoretical research frameworks to analyze these factors. This study analyzed the data sampled from 241 rural households located in counties affected by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. A theoretical model was designed to investigate rural households’ disaster risk perception and used path analysis to systematically analyze the mechanism of the factors stated above. The results showed that 53.11% of rural households had a stronger willingness to purchase disease insurance and 72.19% had a stronger willingness to relocate to avoid disasters. Risk perception, knowledge and reported skills, and awareness of disaster risk reduction were significantly correlated with a willingness to purchase disaster insurance. Risk perception and awareness of disaster risk reduction were significantly positively correlated with a willingness to relocate to avoid disasters. Knowledge and reported skills indirectly affected the willingness to purchase insurance and the willingness to relocate to avoid disasters through risk perception and awareness of disaster risk reduction. Risk perception could indirectly affect the willingness to purchase insurance and the willingness to relocate to avoid disasters through awareness of disaster risk reduction.

Rural households are micro-organizational systems that are composed of different family members. Against a background of fragmented land patterns and massive labor migration in China, it is of great significance for the sustainable development of regional economies to explore the optimal selection of livelihood strategies by rural households. Using a survey containing data from 8031 rural households from 27 provinces in China, this study analyzed the characteristics and spatial distribution trends of the land management scale, family life cycle, and livelihood strategy selection of rural households, and constructed Tobit econometric models to explore the correlations among these factors. The results show: (1) Rural households’ land management scale was primarily small-scale and, as it expanded, the proportion of the total cash income coming from agricultural activities increased. A relative majority of rural households were in the middle period of the family life cycle, and relatively few rural households were in the starting and empty nest periods. The proportion of the total cash income of rural households coming from agricultural pursuits while in the stable and the empty nest periods was relatively large, reaching 40.51% and 38.92%, respectively. In most provinces sampled, rural households’ livelihood strategies were non-agriculturally based, and the land management scale was mainly less than 0.67 ha. (2) Rural households’ land management scale positively correlated with their livelihood strategy selection. When other conditions remained unchanged, with every 1 ha increase in land management scale, the proportion of agricultural cash income in total family cash income increased, on average, by 3.7%. In comparison with rural households in the empty nest period, the proportions of agricultural cash income in the total family cash income of rural households in other family life cycles were relatively small. Specifically, for rural households in the starting, rearing, burden, stable, and maintenance periods, the proportion of agricultural cash income in the total family cash income decreased, on average, by 6.8%, 6.7%, 9.2%, 3.5%, and 16.3%, respectively.

With the feminization of agriculture, the role of women in the rural land transfer market is becoming increasingly important. However, at present, there is little research focusing on the relationship between the off-farm migration of female laborers and land transfer rates. Using data on 1652 agricultural land plots owned by 232 rural households in Sichuan Province in 2014, IV-Probit (The Probit model of tool variable method is added) and IV-Tobit (The Tobit model of tool variable method is added) models were constructed to explore the relationships between off-farm migration and rural household land transfer (whether the rural households have land transfer-in and the area of land transfer-in by rural households) with consideration of gender. The results show that: (1) Off-farm labor migration has a negative and significant impact on rural households’ land transfer-in rates. Under the same conditions, the off-farm migration rate increased by 10%, the probability of transfer-in land decreased by 2.6% on average, and the transfer-in area decreased by 2.7 mu on average. (2) The off-farm migration of female laborers inhibited land transfer-in rates. For every 10% increase in female labor migration, the probability of land transfer-in decreased by an average of 2.1%, and the land transfer-in area was reduced by an average of 3 mu (1 mu = 667 m2 or 0.067 ha). However, the impact of male labor migration on farmers’ land transfer-in is negative and not significant. This study provides a novel, gendered perspective to understand land transfer-in behaviors in hilly areas, which can provide further information on off-farm labor migration and the rational allocation of land resources.