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.