Abstract:

The issue of livelihood resilience of farmers relocated for poverty alleviation is key to follow-up support. In China's rural financial environment, there is little empirical evidence on whether credit support can effectively enhance livelihood resilience. Based on the survey data from southern Shaanxi, this paper elaborates on the mechanism of credit support on livelihood resilience of relocated farmers from theoretical and mathematical perspectives and measures the net effect by using six matching methods of PSM. The study finds that: credit support can significantly enhance the livelihood resilience of relocated farmers, and this conclusion is still valid after robustness tests, such as the instrumental variable method and entropy balance method. From the perspective of credit type, formal credit, and policy credit have a stronger effect on improving livelihood resilience than informal credit and commercial credit. The effect of credit support also depends on the relocated farmers' conditions, external environment, and capital allocation. Farmers who adopt autonomous livelihood strategies, resettle in towns, and use credit funds for production and business can better improve their livelihood resilience by credit support. Based on this, this paper puts forward policy recommendations for better utilization of credit support.

Key words:

farmers' livelihood, livelihood resilience, relocation for poverty alleviation, credit support, ESR