Gendered property rights and collective action for sustainable livestock systems: evidence from rangeland reform in China

Collective action is crucial for sustainable natural resource governance, with land property rights playing a decisive role. Yet little is known about how intra-household resource allocation, particularly resource property titles distribution between husband and wife, affects collective action in livestock-based systems. This study focuses on a unique Employee Responsibility System reform in state-owned livestock farming systems that manage state rangelands in China. Unlike the common practice of bundling rangeland property rights at the household level, this reform allocated state rangeland contracts to individual employees, thus creating a unique opportunity to examine gender-differentiated effects of property rights on cooperative governance for sustainable livestock management. To address potential selection bias, this paper employed an augmented inverse probability weighting (AIPW) approach using data from 112 face-to-face household surveys. We find that households with women holding land rights (solely or jointly) have a 16.5 percentage point higher probability of participating in cooperative management than those under male-solely titles. This effect is more pronounced among households facing greater resource constraints. The in-depth interviews further reveal that these outcomes are driven by higher female engagement in community affairs, stronger perceived tenure security, and longer expected right durations. Furthermore, higher participation in collective actions is associated with reduced overgrazing and higher livestock income, thereby enhancing both ecological and livelihood outcomes. The findings indicate that narrowing property title gaps across gender, especially through recognizing women’s land rights, is a viable strategy to enhance collective action and improve rangeland governance and livestock system sustainability.