How Does the Development of New Rural Collective Economy Promote Farmers' Trust in Village Cadres: A Perspective of Resource Allocation

The trust between farmers and village cadres is an important endogenous driving force for promoting comprehensive rural revitalization and common prosperity. Based on the 2022 China Rural Revitalization Survey (CRRS) data, this paper empirically examines the impact of the development of new rural collective economy on farmers' trust in village cadres and its mechanism. The results show that the development of the new rural collective economy can significantly enhance the relative and absolute trust levels of farmers in village cadres. The inclusiveness of resource allocation (characterized jointly by the productive services of the village collective and the income gap of farmers) and the publicness of resource allocation (characterized jointly by the public services of the village collective and the satisfaction of farmers) play an important role in it. These results confirm the theoretical path of "collective economy-optimized resource allocation-trust enhancement". The heterogeneous results indicate that the reshaping effect of the development of new rural collective economy on farmers' trust in village cadres is more obvious in villages where the funds of collective economic organizations and village committees are managed separately, and in villages with rural talents. Therefore, a fair benefit-sharing pattern of collective interests should be established, the structure of public service supply should be optimized, the reform of "separation of politics and economy" in new rural collective economy should be promoted, and a high-quality rural grassroots cadre team should be built to strengthen the trust between farmers and village cadres and consolidate the collective consensus of the village.