Based on transaction data at the parcel level in Beijing, this paper itemizes the costs incurred in the process of transferring rural land to urban development, quantifies the exact magnitude of land appreciation generated in this process and examines how the land wealth is distributed among involved parties. The main findings include the following: first, the land appreciation and the costs incurred in the process of land expropriation and primary development both differ from case to case;

more »

... nd, conventional comparison of the compensation for expropriated land with land granting price substantially overestimates the magnitude of land appreciation; the average and the median land appreciations account for 44.8% and 44.0% of the mean and median prices of granted serviced land, respectively; last, the compensation paid to affected farmers has improved in absolute terms during our study period from 2003 to 2014; however, because the land granting price has been escalating at a faster pace, the land wealth received by local governments has trended up.