The Impact of the Rural–Urban Migration of Chinese Farmers on the Use of Rural Homesteads: A Threshold Model Analysis

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

 

Dear Authors,

I highlighted below some points that was essential to made my decision to "major revisions" in this paper:

- The introductory text is wordy and does not present an ideas articulation;

- It is not appropriate to present a figure in the introduction text;

- The novelty, economic impact and practical applicability of this study should be highlighted more; 

- A proper presentation of the study area is not performed. Even the location map does not present, for example, in which region of China the study area is located;

- Methodological procedures and statistical analysis need to improve their description and organization.

- The resolution of the figures is very low;

- The research has excellent models. But what are spatial patterns by regions of China? I think that the cartographical analysis is missing.

- The number of table could be decreased, submitting the others as supplementary materials and insert charts throughout the text that can synthesize the results of the tables.; 

- It is possible to identify the presentation of methodological procedures throughout the results;

- The figure or caption list submitted by the authors does not provide enough detail about each figure or table included in the manuscript;

- The formatting of the manuscript is very inappropriate and careless according to the MDPI rules;

- The first paragraph of the conclusion seems to me a abstract and not a conclusion;

- Conclusions part can be improved in the paper. Here is presented in a general concept. Is the used methodology in the paper valid for all areas or is there any limitation or classification for the application?

- The text of the "Recommendations" can come with the "Conclusions" in a synthetic and accurate way.

- Above all, this research has interesting results, which are not well organized and systematized. 

Kind regards.

 

The text is understandable and well written, but needs to be more polished.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 1 Comments

Dear Reviewer 1,

As one of the authors of The Impact of Rural-Urban Migration of Chinese Farmers on the Use of Rural Homestead: A Threshold Model Analysis, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to you. Your suggestions can make a big difference to the quality of our manuscripts and we are grateful for them. We carefully studied your suggestions and found that there were certain flaws in this manuscript. Based on your suggestions, these deficiencies have been corrected, and the full text has been repeatedly studied and revised. Finally, after revising the manuscript, we checked and improved the English expression of the whole paper. Thank you for your time and patience. By carefully studying the your suggestions, the amendments are as follows.

 

Point 1:The introductory text is wordy and does not present an ideas articulation;

Response 1:

Thank you very much for your suggestion. We have streamlined the text of the introduction and deleted the second paragraph of the original manuscript for the figure analysis (line 59-65 in the original manuscript). And further distilled the ideas and condensed the core ideas and research issues of the paper in line 66-79. In addition, we have added a discussion of the shortcomings of previous studies and the implications of our research in lines 54-65 to further present our ideas.

The revised content is as follows (line 66-79):

“Based on the above analysis, the central issue that this research wants to focus on is how the process of rural-urban migration of Chinese farmers has affected the use of rural homestead. Specifically, we aim to examine the following issues: Firstly, why does the area of rural homestead in China continue to increase despite the continuous migration of the rural population to the cities? Secondly, is this increase a phased phenomenon and will it continue? What factors may affect and change this phenome-non? Thirdly, does the phenomenon of “farmers leaving while rural homestead in-creasing” show the same pattern in different regions in China? To explore these issues, we use panel data for urban areas from 2009-2016 to analyse the non-linear relation-ship between the RRUM and the IARH through a threshold model. The inverted U-shaped relationship between the RRUM and the IARH is then further explored using rural population density and the urban-rural income gap as threshold variables. We then use multi-level urban indicators to analyse the heterogeneous effect of the RRUM on the IARH, and finally discuss the spatial spillover effects of the two using a spatial Durbin fixed effects model.”

 (line 54-65):

“Studies on the impact of rural migration on rural land use have focused on the impact of rural exodus on the use of contracted land, such as the loss of rural population resulting in the abandonment of arable land and the reduction of arable land area. The current literature is less concerned with the use of rural homestead, which is important for residential security. Some studies point to a sustained increase in the size of the homestead area in the rural exodus, but whether this increase is sustained and what the regional differences are has not been explored. Why do rural people still need rural homestead to provide security of residential function when they are moving to and living in cities in large numbers? Based on this, this research argues that exploring the relationship, patterns and regional differences between rural-urban migration and rural homestead use in China can provide a better understanding of China's particular pattern of economic structural change.”

 

Point 2:It is not appropriate to present a figure in the introduction text;

Response 2:

Thank you very much for your suggestion, we have first removed the figure in the introduction and the associated analysis. We have then evaluated and moved this section to a more appropriate place (6. Discussion of spatial spillover effects, line 612-618;line 635-637). Finally, all figures have been reordered throughout the manuscript.

The revised content is as follows (line 612-618):

“6. Discussion of spatial spillover effects

There is a peer effect and spatial correlation between farmers' behavioural deci-sions that has been found in some scholarly studies [53,54,55]. we conducted a pre-liminary spatial description analysis for RRUM and IARH separately to further discuss the influence relationship between RRUM and IARH (as shown in Figure 6). Figure 6 reflects the spatial distribution of the RRUM and the IARH in China in 2009 and 2016. In terms of time trends, both the RRUM and the IARH show an increasing trend across most of the country. ”

 

Point 3: The novelty, economic impact and practical applicability of this study should be highlighted more; 

Response 3:

Thank you very much for your suggestion. Based on your suggestions, we have further refined the innovations in this paper and reorganized the economic impact and practical applicability, which are presented in lines 80-105. In addition, we further propose our innovations by comparing the shortcomings of other studies, and the modified part is presented in line 54-65.

The revised content is as follows (line 80-105):

“In terms of theoretical significance, this study can enrich the research findings on labour migration based on the rural-urban context in China from a land perspective, so as to better understand the particular phenomenon in the transformation of China's urban-rural structure. In practical terms, this study further analyses the real demand of rural migrations for rural land based on this special relationship between people and land, and thus promotes the New Urbanization Strategy with people at its core. Understanding the development patterns, regional differences and spatial spillover effects of the relationship between rural migrations and land can better provide policy references for the ongoing reform of China's rural homestead system. This research tries to make innovations from the following points: Firstly, the research perspective is innovative. We use the relationship between the RRUM and the IARH to understand the inseparable relationship between farmers and land in China's economic structural transformation, and further dissect the development pattern of this human-land de-pendency relationship, enriching the study of the impact of rural-urban migration on rural land use in China. Secondly, the models and methods used in this paper allow for a more accurate analysis of phase changes. We use a threshold model instead of other linear regression models, which can accurately identify that this human-land dependency relationship is not a single linear increase, but an inverted U-shaped pattern of increase followed by decrease. At the same time, the use of the threshold model can effectively identify the factors that cause sudden changes in the human-land dependency relationship, and thus can more accurately reflect the development pattern of ru-ral exodus and rural homestead use. Thirdly, the classification of regional differences is innovative. Based on China's own institutional and humanistic background, when we discuss the relationship between RRUM and the IARH in different regions, not only considering the economic development of the region, but also using variables such as minority nationality and regional resource endowment to analyse regional differences based on different indicator classifications.”

(line 54-65):

“Studies on the impact of rural migration on rural land use have focused on the impact of rural exodus on the use of contracted land, such as the loss of rural population resulting in the abandonment of arable land and the reduction of arable land area. The current literature is less concerned with the use of rural homestead, which is important for residential security. Some studies point to a sustained increase in the size of the homestead area in the rural exodus, but whether this increase is sustained and what the regional differences are has not been explored. Why do rural people still need rural homestead to provide security of residential function when they are moving to and living in cities in large numbers? Based on this, this research argues that exploring the relationship, patterns and regional differences between rural-urban migration and rural homestead use in China can provide a better understanding of China's particular pattern of economic structural change.”

 

Point 4:A proper presentation of the study area is not performed. Even the location map does not present, for example, in which region of China the study area is located;

Response 4:

Thank you very much for your suggestion. We have added a study area map (Fig.3) to the manuscript and have reorganised the selected study area with modifications in lines 271-276 .

The revised content is as follows (line 271-276):

“Our study focuses on prefecture-level cities in the central and eastern regions of China, sample covers 280 cities in mainland China, with the study area shown in Figure 3 (to ensure the robustness of the results, all municipalities directly under the central government are excluded from the sample; some cities in the west, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are not involved in this empirical study due to the large number of missing data values).”

 

Point 5:Methodological procedures and statistical analysis need to improve their description and organization.

Response 5:

Thank you very much for your suggestion. We have further refined the methodological procedures and statistical analysis, respectively. First, we have revised lines 341-346 in the Empirical Design section. In the data analysis, we have added the analysis of the regression results for the control variables (lines 492 -511). Finally, we have further refined the data analysis in the analysis of heterogeneity and have streamlined two of the tables into Table 6 (lines 571-586; lines 593-605).

The revised content is as follows:

(line 341-346)：“ Compared to traditional grouped regressions and manually given grouped values, the model calculates thresholds and their quantities that are entirely endogenous to the sample itself, providing greater estimation accuracy. The model is able to accurately identify the possible relationships between variables at various stages of influence and explore how different levels of rural exodus have differentially influenced the use of rural homestead. ”

（line 492-511）:"In the analysis of the other control variables (column for Panel Model in Table 3), it can be seen that the regional rural-urban income gap significantly suppresses the IARH, with an effect coefficient of -0.295. This suggests that as the rural-urban income gap increases, the migrations may no longer return to their hometowns and the demand for new rural homestead will fall. Rural population density significantly suppresses the IARH, while per capita arable land area significantly increases the IARH. This suggests that sparsely populated conditions are more likely to increase the IARH. In addition, the higher the altitude (terrain), the higher the IARH, indicating that the more uninhabitable the terrain is, the less strict the supervision may be, making illegal land occupation and the area over the limit, thus promoting the increase in the area of rural homestead. The net income per rural resident in the region will contribute to the increase in the IARH, indicating that with the economic development and the increase in farmers' income, farmers' demand for rural homestead has been met to a greater ex-tent, thus promoting "house building consumption" to a certain extent. Furthermore, the better the natural resource endowment of the region, the more the IARH is sup-pressed to a certain extent. This may be due to the fact that some resource-based cities are more prone to irrational land use. In mining towns, for example, the threat of encroachment and ecological damage caused by resource extraction makes it easier to promote the concentration of villages around mining areas, thus curbing the rapid growth of rural homestead."

(lines 571-586; lines 593-605):“As can be seen from Figure 6-a, the threshold effect of the RRUM on the IARH is only found in the Central and Western regions . In contrast, in the Eastern region, IARH is significantly positively affected as RRUM increases (column Eastern region in Table 6). The possible explanation is that the value of land, the level of economic development and the living environment are generally higher in the Eastern regions than in the Central and Western regions. Whether from the perspective of building in-vestment or improving the living environment, rural migrants in the Eastern region may have more incentive to return to their hometowns after working in the cities and to build homesteads in their hometowns. Many studies have shown that areas where clan values are prevalent and minority nationality live together have a greater sense of ' Falling Leaf Returns To Root'. That is, when they get older, ru-ral-urban migrants usually choose to return to their hometowns to retire. Therefore, even though there is a high RRUM, these farmers will choose to build farmhouses within the village or even apply for more rural homestead for their offspring to split up or get married, thus accelerating the IARH (as shown in Figure 6-b). Similarly, a significant positive effect of RRUM on IARH can be seen in the Minority nationality column in Table 6.

As can be seen from the column Provincial capital cities in Table 6, the RRUM in Provincial capitals significantly increases the IARH at a statistical level of 10%. How-ever, the threshold effect between the two is only present in Non-provincial capital cities (Figure 6-c). That is, rural-urban migrants in developed areas will have a stronger incentive to return to their hometowns, and the RRUM consist-ently shows a significant positive correlation with the IARH. In the heterogeneity analysis of Re-source-based cities, the threshold effect of the RRUM is found to be present in most Non-resource-based cities (Figure 6-d), while there is no significant relationship be-tween the two in Resource-based cities (column Resource-based cities in Table 6). Resource-based cities, facing the threat of the 'resource curse', tend to show a higher dependence on land use, especially for construction in rural and suburban areas, thus increasing the potential for encroachment on rural homestead and inhibiting the rapid expansion of IARH.”

 

Point 6: The resolution of the figures is very low;

Response 6:

Thank you for your suggestion. We have regenerated all the figures in the full manuscript for export and have adjusted the settings in word regarding the change in resolution after saving. The resolution of all figures has been improved.

 

Point 7: The research has excellent models. But what are spatial patterns by regions of China? I think that the cartographical analysis is missing.

Response 7:

Thank you for your suggestion. We have further presented the results of the analysis as figures in the heterogeneity analysis. This allows the spatial pattern of China's regions to be better reflected in the form of figures. Specifically, with the four classification patterns, we regenerated Figure 6 and added the analysis of the figures in the corresponding positions (line 572-587;line 592-604) .

The modifications are presented in Response 5.

 

Point 8: The number of table could be decreased, submitting the others as supplementary materials and insert charts throughout the text that can synthesize the results of the tables.

Response 8:

Thank you for your suggestion. Following your suggestion, we have streamlined the content of Tab.4 and Tab.5 in the original draft. Moreover, we have combined Tab.7 and Tab.8 into a single Tab.6 and adjusted the corresponding analysis.

 

Point 9: It is possible to identify the presentation of methodological procedures throughout the results;

Response 9:

Thank you very much for your advice. We would like to explain here how we describe the methodological procedures in the results. In Section 4.1 (lines 433-447) of Results we describe the methodological procedure in some detail. In addition, we describe the analytical procedure for the threshold effect in the different sections of Results to the extent possible.

 

Point 10: The figure or caption list submitted by the authors does not provide enough detail about each figure or table included in the manuscript;

Response 10:

Thank you very much for your advice. Based on your suggestions, we have checked the titles of the figures and tables throughout the manuscript and improved them one by one. The changes mainly concern: Fig.1 Fig.2 Fig.3 Tab.6 Fig.6 Fig.7.

The revised content is as follows:

“Figure 1. Analysis of the driving forces of rural migrants' homestead expansion based on push-pull theory.

Figure 2. Mechanistic diagram of the action of the threshold model when Gap and Density are used as threshold variables respectively.

Figure 3. Location map of the study area.

Figure 6. Regional heterogeneity in the presence of threshold effects

Table 6. Analysis of regional heterogeneity based on different classifications.

Figure 7. Spatial distribution of RRUM and IARH in China from 2009 to 2016. ”

 

Point 11: The formatting of the manuscript is very inappropriate and careless according to the MDPI rules.

Response 11:We apologise for this. In accordance with the MDPI rules, we have made certain adjustments to the formatting of the full manuscript. We have also reduced the number of words in the abstract accordingly, in accordance with the rules.

 

Point 12: The first paragraph of the conclusion seems to me a abstract and not a conclusion;

Response 12: Thank you very much for your suggestion. We have reorganised the language in the first paragraph of the conclusion. The original description has been streamlined into a simple one-sentence transition to the conclusion of the paper(line 661-665).

The revised content is as follows: (line 661-665)

“This research analyses a particular phenomenon of urbanisation in China, namely the continuous increase in the area of rural land use while rural migrants continue to move to the cities. We used data from 2009-2016 for each city and used a threshold model to analyse the phased relationship between the RRUM and the IARH, as well as regional variability.”

 

Point 13: Conclusions part can be improved in the paper. Here is presented in a general concept. Is the used methodology in the paper valid for all areas or is there any limitation or classification for the application?

Response 13: Thank you very much for your suggestion. We have added a discussion of the limitations of the research in this paper to the latest manuscript. The revised section is in lines 685-690.

The revised content is as follows: (line 685-690)

“Therefore, the findings of this research apply mainly to non-pilot areas in China prior to the new round of reform of the rural homestead system. In the future, subject to the availability of data, consideration may be given to comparing whether the reform of the homestead system has led to a discussion of changes in the relationship between rural migrations and land use studied in this research.”

 

Point 14: The text of the "Recommendations" can come with the "Conclusions" in a synthetic and accurate way.

Response 14:Thank you very much for your suggestion. We have merged the two sections (line 696).

 

Point 15: The text of the "Recommendations" can come with the "Conclusions" in a synthetic and accurate way.

Response 15:Thank you very much for your suggestion. We have reorganised and systematised the results. The changes are in lines 666-677.

The revised content is as follows: (line 666-677)

“In this study, we found that there is a phased pattern of "dependency" on land in the process of rural-urban migration. Firstly, the threshold model identifies an 'invert-ed U-shaped' double threshold effect of the RRUM on the IARH. In other words, the RRUM has an initial growth-boosting effect on the IARH, but this boost is phased in and gradually tails off as the RRUM increases. Secondly, the relationship between the RRUM and the IARH depends to some extent on rural population density and the regional urban-rural income gap. Specifically, as the regional urban-rural income gap in-creases, there is an inverted U-shaped threshold effect of the RRUM on the IARH, which increases first and then decreases. As rural population density increases, the contribution of the RRUM to the IARH shows a trend of diminishing marginal benefits. Thirdly, the threshold effect of the RRUM on the IARH is mainly found in the Central and Western regions, Non-Minority nationality areas, Non-provincial capital cities and Non-resource-based cities. Lastly, the RRUM can not only directly affect the local IARH, but also indirectly affect the surrounding areas through spatial spillover effects.”

 

 

 

 

These are all the changes I have made in response to your suggestions. We take your suggestions very seriously and amend them accordingly. Thank you again for all your suggestions.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 2 Comments

Dear Reviewer 2,

As one of the authors of The Impact of Rural-Urban Migration of Chinese Farmers on the Use of Rural Homestead: A Threshold Model Analysis, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to you. Your suggestions can make a big difference to the quality of our manuscripts and we are grateful for them. We carefully studied your suggestions and found that there were certain flaws in this manuscript. Based on your suggestions, these deficiencies have been corrected, and the full text has been repeatedly studied and revised. Finally, after revising the manuscript, we checked and improved the English expression of the whole paper. Thank you for your time and patience. By carefully studying the your suggestions, the amendments are as follows.

 

Point 1: Figure 5-2a in Line 208 and Figure 5-2b in Line 222 should explain what they mean and what content of the proposed mechanism makes them as a basis for construction of hypotheses in this article.

Response 1:Thank you very much for your suggestion. We have explained the meaning of each of these two diagrams and used them to further construct the mechanism and propose the hypothesis in the Research Hypothesis section. The changes relate in part to lines 219-228, and lines 237-245. In addition, we have further improved the caption of the figure.

The amendments are as follows:

lines 219-228:

"Therefore, when the urban-rural income gap is within a reasonable range, the rural exodus increases incomes, thus increasing the likelihood of returning to the country-side to build new homesteads. That is, the RRUM reflects a promotional effect on the IARH when the urban-rural income gap is small (Left half of Figure 2a). However, once the income gap between urban and rural areas exceeds a reasonable range, the area will lose a certain degree of "attraction" for the rural exodus, reducing the incen-tive for migrant workers to return to their hometowns. At this point, the stimulating effect of rural-urban migration on the increase in the area of rural homesteads will be offset, or even reverse, as shown by a gradual de-crease in the IARH. At this time, RRUM manifests an inhibitory effect on IARH (Right half of Figure 2a). Thus the rela-tionship between RRUM and IARH has an overall inverted U-shape under the influ-ence of the urban-rural income gap. The mechanism of which is shown in Figure 2a. Therefore, we proposes hypothesis 2."

lines 237-245:

"Therefore, when rural population density is within a certain range, rural population outflow may stimulate new rural homestead construction after returning to the coun-tryside. That is, the RRUM reflects a promotional effect on the IARH when the rural population density is small (Left half of Figure 2b). However, once population density exceeds a reasonable interval, it may limit the maximum amount of new rural homestead area. At this time, the objective conditions of geography prevented an un-limited increase in the number of homesteads. Therefore, it may show no significant correlation between RRUM and IARH (Right half of Figure 2b). The mechanism of which is shown in Figure 2b. Therefore, we proposes hypothesis 3 accordingly. "

the caption of the figure:

“Figure 2. Mechanistic diagram of the action of the threshold model when Gap and Density are used as threshold variables respectively.”

Point 2: ??? , the threshold level, in equation (1) should be addressed in the section of Empirical Design with clarity.

Response 2：Thank you very much for your suggestion, we had previously neglected to clarify ???. Clarification for ??? added in line 360.

The amendments are as follows:

“qit is the threshold variable, which in equation (1) is the RRUM itself”

 

Point 3: Table 2 shows the threshold effects in this article. All the variables and data in Table 2 should be specified completely for the basis of next investigation of this article.

Response 3：Thank you very much for your suggestion. Firstly, we have added remarks on the description of the variables in Table 2 (lines 397-399). Secondly, in lines 524-530 we have also added a description and analysis of the data in Table 2, particularly with regard to the interpretation of threshold values. The rest of the information in Table 2 is reflected in lines 390-395.

The amendments are as follows:

lines 397-399：

Note: where mobility is a measure of rural exodus, gap is an abbreviation for the variable Ur-ban-rural income gap, and density is an abbreviation for Rural population density (the same as in the following tables).

lines 524-530:

“Combined with the threshold values in Table 2, it can be seen that when the urban-rural income gap below 2.000, an increase in the RRUM raises the IARH. While when the value of the urban-rural income gap is ≥2.000, the RRUM shows a significant negative relationship with the IARH, thus hypothesis 2 is tested. Finally, we test whether the rural population density is a threshold variable. As can be seen from the second column of Tab.4 and the threshold values in Table 2, when the rural population density is below 96.410, an increase in the RRUM significantly raises the IARH.”

 

Point 4: In addition, there is one more comment for this article. Many variables that are not clearly defined are used in Table 3 to Table 8 in this article. It is recommended to add into a definition table of the variables used before subsequent analysis.

Response 4：Thank you very much for your suggestion. We regret that undefined variables are in fact abbreviations of some previously defined variables, so we have made the following changes: Firstly, we have added notes to the variables that are not explicitly defined in the form of remarks (Tab. 2; Tab. 3; lines 397-399; lines 482-488). Secondly, we have streamlined Tables 4 and 5, in particular by removing sections of control variables that did not need to be analysed. Finally, we provide additional analyses of the regression results for the control variables in Table 3 (lines 492-511).

The amendments are as follows:

（line 397-399）

Note: where mobility is a measure of rural exodus, gap is an abbreviation for the variable Ur-ban-rural income gap, and density is an abbreviation for Rural population density (the same as in the following tables).

(line 482-488)

Note: where terrain is an abbreviation for the variable Topographic characteristics, salary is an abbreviation for Net income per rural resident, resources is an abbreviation for the variable Natural resource endowment, and arable is an abbreviation for Arable land per capita.

(line 492-511)：

“In the analysis of the other control variables (column for Panel Model in Table 3), it can be seen that the regional rural-urban income gap significantly suppresses the IARH, with an effect coefficient of -0.295. This suggests that as the rural-urban income gap increases, the migrations may no longer return to their hometowns and the demand for new rural homestead will fall. Rural population density significantly suppresses the IARH, while per capita arable land area significantly increases the IARH. This suggests that sparsely populated conditions are more likely to increase the IARH. In addition, the higher the altitude (terrain), the higher the IARH, indicating that the more uninhabitable the terrain is, the less strict the supervision may be, making illegal land occupation and the area over the limit, thus promoting the increase in the area of rural homestead. The net income per rural resident in the region will contribute to the increase in the IARH, indicating that with the economic development and the increase in farmers' income, farmers' demand for rural homestead has been met to a greater ex-tent, thus promoting "house building consumption" to a certain extent. Furthermore, the better the natural resource endowment of the region, the more the IARH is sup-pressed to a certain extent. This may be due to the fact that some resource-based cities are more prone to irrational land use. In mining towns, for example, the threat of en-croachment and ecological damage caused by resource extraction makes it easier to promote the concentration of villages around mining areas, thus curbing the rapid growth of rural homestead.”

 

 

These are all the changes I have made in response to your suggestions. We take your suggestions very seriously and amend them accordingly. Thank you again for all your suggestions.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear authors,        
    
the submitted manuscript, although not completely novel, fits the scope of the journal. However, most of the methods and data used are poorly explained  – explain why you used the specific method and in the limitation chapter explain what would be the difference in the results if you used a different method. Please, clarify what are the innovative contributions of this study to science. Highlight the aspects in which your research departs from the existing literature, there are a lot of similar manuscripts dealing with the same methodology available. While I fully respect the workload required to carry out this work, I cannot recommend publication in its current state - major revision before publication is needed. First of all, the methodology is incomplete: there are unclear research questions, and the proposed procedure methods are not appropriately elaborated. figures play a vital role in conveying complex information visually, making it easier for readers to grasp the study's findings – all the figures acks the resolution, and the used fonts are too small. Additionally, spatial representation plays a major role in various scientific disciplines, particularly those dealing with geographical or environmental studies – the inclusion of some kind of thematic map for results would be crucial. The article's conclusion appears to be disconnected from the actual result and findings of the research. Addressing these issues would significantly enhance the article's quality and contribute to the advancement of scientific discourse within the field.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 3 Comments

Dear Reviewer 3,

As one of the authors of The Impact of Rural-Urban Migration of Chinese Farmers on the Use of Rural Homestead: A Threshold Model Analysis, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to you. Your suggestions can make a big difference to the quality of our manuscripts and we are grateful for them. We carefully studied your suggestions and found that there were certain flaws in this manuscript. Based on your suggestions, these deficiencies have been corrected, and the full text has been repeatedly studied and revised. Finally, after revising the manuscript, we checked and improved the English expression of the whole paper. Thank you for your time and patience. By carefully studying the your suggestions, the amendments are as follows.

 

Point 1: However, most of the methods and data used are poorly explained  – explain why you used the specific method and in the limitation chapter explain what would be the difference in the results if you used a different method.

Response 1: Thank you very much for your suggestions. We have made the following changes in response to your suggestions: Firstly, in the introduction we describe why the research methodology used in this paper was adopted (lines 58-62). Secondly, in the innovation section we also present the novelty and necessity of the methodology used in this paper (lines 93-100). Finally, in the model setting section, we compare the threshold model used in this paper with other models and point out the need for the methodology used in this paper (lines 341-346).

 

Point 2: Please, clarify what are the innovative contributions of this study to science. Highlight the aspects in which your research departs from the existing literature, there are a lot of similar manuscripts dealing with the same methodology available.

Response 2: Thank you very much for your suggestion. Based on your suggestions, we have further refined the innovative contributions in this manuscript and re-emphasized the economic impact and practical applicability, which are presented in lines 80-105. In addition, we further propose our innovations by comparing the shortcomings of other studies, and the modified part is presented in line 54-65.

The revised content is as follows (line 80-105):

“In terms of theoretical significance, this study can enrich the research findings on labour migration based on the rural-urban context in China from a land perspective, so as to better understand the particular phenomenon in the transformation of China's urban-rural structure. In practical terms, this study further analyses the real demand of rural migrations for rural land based on this special relationship between people and land, and thus promotes the New Urbanization Strategy with people at its core. Un-derstanding the development patterns, regional differences and spatial spillover ef-fects of the relationship between rural migrations and land can better provide policy references for the ongoing reform of China's rural homestead system. This research tries to make innovations from the following points:Firstly，the research perspective is innovative. We use the relationship between the RRUM and the IARH to understand the inseparable relationship between farmers and land in China's economic structural transformation, and further dissect the development pattern of this human-land de-pendency relationship, enriching the study of the impact of rural-urban migration on rural land use in China. Secondly, the models and methods used in this paper allow for a more accurate analysis of phase changes. We use a threshold model instead of other linear regression models, which can accurately identify that this human-land depend-ency relationship is not a single linear increase, but an inverted U-shaped pattern of increase followed by decrease. At the same time, the use of the threshold model can effectively identify the factors that cause sudden changes in the human-land depend-ency relationship, and thus can more accurately reflect the development pattern of ru-ral exodus and rural homestead use. Thirdly, the classification of regional differences is innovative. Based on China's own institutional and humanistic background, when we discuss the relationship between RRUM and the IARH in different regions, not only considering the economic development of the region, but also using variables such as minority nationality and regional resource endowment to analyse regional differences based on different indicator classifications.”

(line 54-65):

“Studies on the impact of rural migration on rural land use have focused on the impact of rural exodus on the use of contracted land, such as the loss of rural population resulting in the abandonment of arable land and the reduction of arable land area. The current literature is less concerned with the use of rural homestead, which is important for residential security. Some studies point to a sustained increase in the size of the homestead area in the rural exodus, but whether this increase is sustained and what the regional differences are has not been explored. Why do rural people still need rural homestead to provide security of residential function when they are moving to and living in cities in large numbers? Based on this, this research argues that exploring the relationship, patterns and regional differences between rural-urban migration and rural homestead use in China can provide a better understanding of China's particular pattern of economic structural change.”

 

Point 3: First of all, the methodology is incomplete: there are unclear research questions, and the proposed procedure methods are not appropriately elaborated.

Response 3:Thank you very much for your suggestion. Firstly, we further distilled the ideas and condensed the core ideas and research issues of the paper in line 66-79. Secondly, we have added a discussion of the shortcomings of previous studies and the implications of our research in lines 54-65 to further present our ideas. In addition, we have elaborated on the uniqueness of the methods used (line 341-346; line 93-100)。Lastly, we have further refined the methodological procedures and statistical analysis :we have revised lines 341-346 in the Empirial Design section; in the data analysis, we have added the analysis of the regression results for the control variables (lines 492 -511); we have further refined the data analysis in the analysis of heterogeneity and have streamlined two of the tables into Table 6 (lines 571-586; lines 593-605).

The revised content is as follows:

（line 66-79）：

“Based on the above analysis, the central issue that this research wants to focus on is how the process of rural-urban migration of Chinese farmers has affected the use of rural homestead. Specifically, we aim to examine the following issues: Firstly, why does the area of rural homestead in China continue to increase despite the continuous migration of the rural population to the cities? Secondly, is this increase a phased phenomenon and will it continue? What factors may affect and change this phenome-non? Thirdly, does the phenomenon of “farmers leaving while rural homestead in-creasing” show the same pattern in different regions in China? To explore these issues, we use panel data for urban areas from 2009-2016 to analyse the non-linear relation-ship between the RRUM and the IARH through a threshold model. The inverted U-shaped relationship between the RRUM and the IARH is then further explored us-ing rural population density and the urban-rural income gap as threshold variables. We then use multi-level urban indicators to analyse the heterogeneous effect of the RRUM on the IARH, and finally discuss the spatial spillover effects of the two using a spatial Durbin fixed effects model.”

(line 54-65):

“Studies on the impact of rural migration on rural land use have focused on the impact of rural exodus on the use of contracted land, such as the loss of rural population resulting in the abandonment of arable land and the reduction of arable land area. The current literature is less concerned with the use of rural homestead, which is important for residential security. Some studies point to a sustained increase in the size of the homestead area in the rural exodus, but whether this increase is sustained and what the regional differences are has not been explored. Why do rural people still need rural homestead to provide security of residential function when they are moving to and living in cities in large numbers? Based on this, this research argues that exploring the relationship, patterns and regional differences between rural-urban migration and rural homestead use in China can provide a better understanding of China's particular pattern of economic structural change.”

(line 341-346)：

“ Compared to traditional grouped regressions and manually given grouped values, the model calculates thresholds and their quantities that are entirely endogenous to the sample itself, providing greater estimation accuracy. The model is able to accurately identify the possible relationships between variables at various stages of influence and explore how different levels of rural exodus have differentially influenced the use of rural homestead. ”

（line 93-100）：

“Secondly, the models and methods used in this paper allow for a more accurate analysis of phase changes. We use a threshold model instead of other linear regression models, which can accurately identify that this human-land dependency relationship is not a single linear increase, but an inverted U-shaped pattern of increase followed by decrease. At the same time, the use of the threshold model can effectively identify the factors that cause sudden changes in the human-land dependency relationship, and thus can more accurately reflect the development pattern of rural exodus and rural homestead use.”

(line 341-346)：

“ Compared to traditional grouped regressions and manually given grouped values, the model calculates thresholds and their quantities that are entirely endogenous to the sample itself, providing greater estimation accuracy. The model is able to accurately identify the possible relationships between variables at various stages of influence and explore how different levels of rural exodus have differentially influenced the use of rural homestead. ”

（line 492-511）:"In the analysis of the other control variables (column for Panel Model in Table 3), it can be seen that the regional rural-urban income gap significantly suppresses the IARH, with an effect coefficient of -0.295. This suggests that as the rural-urban income gap increases, the migrations may no longer return to their hometowns and the demand for new rural homestead will fall. Rural population density significantly suppresses the IARH, while per capita arable land area significantly increases the IARH. This suggests that sparsely populated conditions are more likely to increase the IARH. In addition, the higher the altitude (terrain), the higher the IARH, indicating that the more uninhabitable the terrain is, the less strict the supervision may be, making illegal land occupation and the area over the limit, thus promoting the increase in the area of rural homestead. The net income per rural resident in the region will contribute to the increase in the IARH, indicating that with the economic development and the increase in farmers' income, farmers' demand for rural homestead has been met to a greater ex-tent, thus promoting "house building consumption" to a certain extent. Furthermore, the better the natural resource endowment of the region, the more the IARH is sup-pressed to a certain extent. This may be due to the fact that some resource-based cities are more prone to irrational land use. In mining towns, for example, the threat of en-croachment and ecological damage caused by resource extraction makes it easier to promote the concentration of villages around mining areas, thus curbing the rapid growth of rural homestead."

(lines 571-586; lines 593-605):“As can be seen from Figure 6-a, the threshold effect of the RRUM on the IARH is only found in the Central and Western regions . In contrast, in the Eastern region, IARH is significantly positively affected as RRUM increases (column Eastern region in Table 6). The possible explanation is that the value of land, the level of economic de-velopment and the living environment are generally higher in the Eastern regions than in the Central and Western regions. Whether from the perspec-tive of building in-vestment or improving the living environment, rural migrants in the Eastern region may have more incentive to return to their hometowns after working in the cities and to build homesteads in their hometowns. Many studies have shown that areas where clan values are prevalent and minority nationality live together have a greater sense of ' Falling Leaf Returns To Root'. That is, when they get older, ru-ral-urban migrants usually choose to return to their hometowns to retire. Therefore, even though there is a high RRUM, these farmers will choose to build farmhouses within the village or even apply for more rural homestead for their offspring to split up or get married, thus ac-celerating the IARH (as shown in Figure 6-b). Similarly, a significant positive effect of RRUM on IARH can be seen in the Minority nationality column in Table 6.

As can be seen from the column Provincial capital cities in Table 6, the RRUM in Provincial capitals significantly increases the IARH at a statistical level of 10%. How-ever, the threshold effect between the two is only present in Non-provincial capital cities (Figure 6-c). That is, rural-urban migrants in developed areas will have a stronger incentive to return to their hometowns, and the RRUM consist-ently shows a signifi-cant positive correlation with the IARH. In the heterogeneity analysis of Re-source-based cities, the threshold effect of the RRUM is found to be present in most Non-resource-based cities (Figure 6-d), while there is no significant relationship be-tween the two in Resource-based cities (column Resource-based cities in Table 6). Resource-based cities, facing the threat of the 'resource curse', tend to show a higher dependence on land use, especially for con-struction in rural and suburban areas, thus increasing the potential for encroachment on rural homestead and inhibiting the rapid expansion of IARH.”

 

Point 4: figures play a vital role in conveying complex information visually, making it easier for readers to grasp the study's findings – all the figures acks the resolution, and the used fonts are too small.

Response 4: Thank you for your suggestion. We have regenerated all the figures in the full manuscript for export and have adjusted the settings in word regarding the change in resolution after saving. The resolution of all figures has been improved.

 

Point 5: Additionally, spatial representation plays a major role in various scientific disciplines, particularly those dealing with geographical or environmental studies – the inclusion of some kind of thematic map for results would be crucial.

Response 5: Thank you for your suggestion. To add more spatial representations, we have further presented the results of the analysis as figures in the heterogeneity analysis. This allows the spatial pattern of China's regions to be better reflected in the form of figures. Specifically, with the four classification patterns, we regenerated Figure 6 and added the analysis of the figures in the corresponding positions (line 571-586;line 593-605) .

The modifications are presented in Response 3.

 

Point 6: The article's conclusion appears to be disconnected from the actual result and findings of the research.

Response 6: Thank you very much for your suggestion. Based on your suggestions, we have further revised and refined our conclusions in the light of the previous results. Firstly, we have reorganised the language in the first paragraph of the conclusion. The original description has been streamlined into a simple one-sentence transition to the conclusion of the paper (line 661-665). Secondly, we have reorganised and systematised the results. The changes are in lines 666-677. Lastly, we have added a discussion of the limitations of the research in this paper to the latest manuscript. The revised section is in lines 685-690.

The revised content is as follows:

(line 661-665):

“This research analyses a particular phenomenon of urbanisation in China, namely the continuous increase in the area of rural land use while rural migrants continue to move to the cities. We used data from 2009-2016 for each city and used a threshold model to analyse the phased relationship between the RRUM and the IARH, as well as regional variability.”

(line 666-677)

“In this study, we found that there is a phased pattern of "dependency" on land in the process of rural-urban migration. Firstly, the threshold model identifies an 'invert-ed U-shaped' double threshold effect of the RRUM on the IARH. In other words, the RRUM has an initial growth-boosting effect on the IARH, but this boost is phased in and gradually tails off as the RRUM increases. Secondly, the relationship between the RRUM and the IARH depends to some extent on rural population density and the re-gional urban-rural income gap. Specifically, as the regional urban-rural income gap in-creases, there is an inverted U-shaped threshold effect of the RRUM on the IARH, which increases first and then decreases. As rural population density increases, the contribution of the RRUM to the IARH shows a trend of diminishing marginal benefits. Thirdly, the threshold effect of the RRUM on the IARH is mainly found in the Central and Western regions, Non-Minority nationality areas, Non-provincial capital cities and Non-resource-based cities. Lastly, the RRUM can not only directly affect the local IARH, but also indirectly affect the surrounding areas through spatial spillover effects.”

(line 685-690)

“Therefore, the findings of this research apply mainly to non-pilot areas in China prior to the new round of reform of the rural homestead system. In the future, subject to the availability of data, consideration may be given to comparing whether the reform of the homestead system has led to a discussion of changes in the relationship between rural migrations and land use studied in this research.”

 

 

These are all the changes we have made in response to your suggestions. We take your suggestions very seriously and amend them accordingly. Thank you again for all your suggestions.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors,

I have identified that you have performed all the corrections and changes requested.

The manuscript presented a high degree of improvement quality and my decision is to "accept".

Congratulations!

Kind regards.

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear authors, thank you for addressing my remarks, I believe that the manuscript has been sufficiently improved to warrant publication in the jornal.