Can interests linkage mechanism reduce the quality risk of land trusteeship services in Shandong, China?

In the context of gradual enhancement of land trusteeship service quality risk, the existing literature has not provided a reasonable answer about the risk reduction role of interests linkage mechanism. Based on the collection of farmers’ data from Shandong province of China, this study applies the propensity score matching (PSM) and instrumental variable model to analyze the impact of interests linkage mechanism on the quality risk of land trusteeship services. It is found that (1) the interests linkage mechanism has a significant negative impact on the quality risk of land trusteeship services. This finding still holds after a series of robustness tests. The risk-reducing effect of the interests linkage mechanism was overestimated before the sample matching treatment. (2) The reduction effect of service quality risk in the med-production is greater than that of pre-production and post-production service quality risk in that order. (3) Small-scale service providers are more likely to pose quality risk, while establishing interests linkage mechanism has the most significant effect on reducing quality risk among part-time farmers. This study findings help to enrich the theory of interests linkage mechanism between farmers and service organizations, which also can provide practical guidance for the prevention and control of land trusteeship service quality risk.