This research examines the effect of risk and time preferences on forest management responses to forest tenure land reforms in Fujian, China that began in 2002. The different extent of the reform and its different timing across regions provide a natural experiment to test how time and risk preferences affect a households’ forest investment response to the reform. Empirically, we combine original field experiment data on time and risk preferences collected among 103 households with an original panel survey data set collected among the same 103 households, which contains data for three years: 2000 (before the reform), 2005 and 2008 (after the reform) in a difference-in-differences framework. We examine three measures of forest management activity, including:... |