The impact of multi-household rangeland operation on non-agricultural employment and household income in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau: An empirical analysis based on Qinghai and Gansu survey data

The multiple household operations of rangeland is common in the pastoral area of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and it is widely believed that this operation can save management labor. However, little is known about whether the released labor is laid aside or transferred to non-farm employment leading to increase in household income. None of the previous studies have explored this issue in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Based on survey data of 357 herders collected from the pastoral areas of Qinghai and Gansu provinces, this study analyzed the impact of multiple household operations on non-agricultural employment and household income using the endogenous switching probit (ESP) regression and treatment effect model (TEM). The empirical results show that multiple household operations can effectively promote non-agricultural employment and significantly increase household income (P < 0.01). But as a spontaneous organization exists, the management of many families has strong instability. Our results suggest the necessity to strengthen and optimize the behavior of herders’ cooperative organizations and formalize herders’ cooperative organizations to achieve economies of scale. Promoting the development of non-agricultural industries and increasing suitable non-agricultural employment positions are also very important to pastoral areas.