Quantifying the family welfare in response to peasant entrepreneurship

Abstract

With the dynamic and complex changes in the farmers’ living environment and the vigorous development of entrepreneurial activities worldwide, farmer entrepreneurship is experiencing rapid growth. However, whether farmer entrepreneurship enhances the welfare of farmers’ families demands further scrutiny. Utilizing data from the Chinese Family Tracking Survey and drawing on Amartya Sen’s capability approach, this article formulates a farmer family welfare evaluation index system to comprehensively assess the impact of farmer entrepreneurship on farmer families. The research findings reveal the following: (1) Entrepreneurship contributes to enhancing the welfare of farmer families, with entrepreneurial farmer families experiencing higher welfare levels than their non-entrepreneurial counterparts. (2) Farmer entrepreneurship falls short of delivering complete welfare improvements to farmers’ families. While various welfare conditions, such as family economics, social security, living conditions, and psychological conditions, have improved after starting a business, health welfare has seen a decline. (3) Farmland transfer significantly influences the process of farmer entrepreneurship, directly fostering the family welfare of entrepreneurial farmers. (4) Farmers’ entrepreneurial behavior yields greater welfare benefits for the new generation, farmers with higher education levels, and those situated in the central region. Building on these findings, this study proposes relevant improvement suggestions to offer robust support for policy considerations.