Based on detailed household-level data collected in three counties in Jiangxi province in the southeast of China,this article uses five groups of Probit and Tobit models with different tenure security variables to examine the separate and combined effects of actual and perceived tenure security on rural household participation in land rental activities.To deal with the potential endogeneity of perceived tenure security,we apply a two-stage instrumental variables approach.We find that perceived tenure security is a more important factor influencing the development of land rental markets than actual tenure security.Perceived tenure security mainly affects those who have no land certificates and did not experience land reallocation in the past.When farmland serves as a source of social security,negative effects may counterbalance the positive transaction cost reduction effect of enhanced tenure security.Ongoing land tenure policy reforms that aim to facilitate the development of land rental markets should pay more attention to farmers perceptions of tenure (in)security and to the social security function of farmland.If not,improved legal and actual tenure security may not bring the desired effects.