Local versus global separability in agricultural household models: The factor price equalization effect of land transfer rights

Commonly employed global tests for separability between production and consumption decisions are theoretically inappropriate when the market failures creating non-separabilities differentially constrain some, but not all households. Simulated maximum likelihood estimates using Chinese panel data reject the restrictions implied by a global separability test in favor of regime-specific or local separability tests. The estimates also show that a global approach to separability obscures the significant effect that less-encumbered land transfer rights would have on shadow factor price equalization across households and allocative efficiency. The findings on transfer rights suggest a resolution to the debate in China on further property rights reform.