5.1.4. Difference in Herd Effect between Agricultural Income Groups

In order to better examine the herd effect in farmers' land transfer behavior, this paper divides farmers into three groups according to their agricultural income, viz. low, middle, and high agricultural income groups. Regression analysis was carried out to investigate whether the impact of the number of farmers in the same village making land transfers on farmers' land transfer behavior differed between the three groups, and Table 5 summarizes the regression results.

**Table 5.** Results of model fitting for various agricultural income groups.


Note: \*\*\* and \*\* denote significance at 1% and 10% respectively.

According to the analysis, the number of farmers in the same village making land transfers was positively significant at 1% in low- and middle-income groups. The number of farmers in the same village making land transfers was significant at 5% in the highincome group. This indicates that the herd effect is more noticeable in the land transfer behavior of farmers in the low- and middle-income groups. The reason may be that farmers in low- and middle-income groups, in contrast to those in the high-income group, may have no other income sources except the land, so their likelihood of inward land transferring increases in order to raise agricultural earnings and facilitate cultivation and harvesting using large machinery. Furthermore, farmers in the low-income and middle-income may tend to transfer land outwards to others and work for an employer, hence earning much less from the land, and the likelihood of outward land transfer increases.

#### *5.2. Discussion*

#### 5.2.1. Contribution of Research

This study suggests that farmers' family features, resource endowment, and cognitive features have a major influence on farmers' land transfer behavior, which corresponds with current research findings, especially regarding the impact on farmers' land transfer behavior of age and gender of the householder, arable land area, and farmers' satisfaction with farmland infrastructure [1,6,17,18,27].

However, among these existing studies few have focused on the impact of group psychology on farmers' land transfer behavior. The current research verifies that the herd effect does exert an influence on farmers' land transfer behavior. On the one hand, there are close social networks linked by geography in rural China. With the development of urbanization, large numbers of young people go to work in cities. Most of those who stay in rural areas are farmers with generally low levels of education. They face high costs in collecting, interpreting, and utilizing the land transfer policy information provided by the government. Therefore, in this suboptimal situation of information asymmetry, farmers tend to trust the behaviors of other farmers in the same geo-network, including relatives, friends, acquaintances, or village cadres, resulting in a herd effect. On the other hand, when it is not clear whether the land transfer behavior can bring benefits, farmers will imitate other farmers' decision-making behavior, and the process of referring to other farmers' decision-making information is bound to have an impact on farmers' own decision-making behavior. Thus, farmers follow others to make the same land transfer decisions, resulting in an obvious herd effect in the land transfer behavior. Hence, this study enriches the research focusing on the impact of group psychology on farmers' land transfer behavior, and offers a reference for applying the herd effect in research into farmers' land use behavior.

#### 5.2.2. Limitation and Future Perspectives

This research concludes that there is a herd effect in farmers' land transfer behavior, and that the herd effect can encourage rural land transfer and support extensive land management. Farmers' experience of the land transfer process can be separated into three stages. Firstly, individual farmers incentivized by land transfer information develop their willingness to transfer land, referred to as land transfer willingness. Secondly, farmers transfer their land by utilizing the useful information accessed from other farmers, referred to as land transfer behavior. Finally, they set a rational land transfer price for transferring land based on the price information obtained from other farmers, referred to as the land transfer outcome. It remains unknown whether the herd effect is exerted during all these stages, and the function of the herd effect on the formatting of land transfer price has not been analyzed. Thus, further exploration is required to overcome the failings in this study's examination of how the herd effect impacts all stages of the land transfer process and its outcome.

#### **6. Conclusions**

According to the results, the number of farmers in the same village making land transfers and the number of village cadres in the same village making land transfers, reflecting the geo-network and indicating the herd effect, positively impact farmers' land transfer behavior. Farmers imitate the land transfer behavior of other farmers in the same geo-network, so a herd effect exists in farmers' land transfer behavior. Farmers' family features, resource endowment, and cognitive features are key factors influencing their land transfer behavior. Farmers' land transfer behavior is more significantly influenced in groups with low and middle agricultural income than in groups with high agricultural incomes.

In view of the above results, if land transfer information can be effectively disseminated among farmers within a geo-network, the possibility of their involvement in land transfer will rise prominently, and the information transfer function of the herd effect will promote land transfer. If individual farmers prefer to access information from other farmers in the same geo-network rather than consulting related land transfer policies when deciding whether to transfer their land, the demonstration function of the herd effect significantly affects their land transfer behaviors. This study provides the following policy suggestions:


of land transfer contracts, enhancing the protection of land transfer contracts, and promoting real-name registration for land transfer, with a view to improving land transfer services and management, and expanding the scale of land transfer.

3. Greater investment in construction of farmland infrastructure are needed to encourage land transfer among farmers. According to the study, farmers' satisfaction with farmland infrastructure plays a key role in their land transfer behavior. Excellent farmland infrastructure conditions are positive contributors to increased land transfer prices and favorable agricultural production conditions for farmers. Hence, further research is essential for raising investments in farmland infrastructure and upscaling land transfer.

**Author Contributions:** J.G. was responsible for conceptualization, formal analysis, writing—original draft preparation, and writing—review and editing. R.Z. was responsible for the methodology. X.L. was responsible for conceptualization. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the General Project of Liaoning Provincial Social Science Fund "The Law of Action of Herd Effect on Farmers' Land Transfer Behavior and Its Policy Regulation" (L20BJY007).

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** The data presented in this study are available in the article.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
