Land is an important means of production and livelihood for rural household,and land transfer is an important indicator of livelihood transformation of rural households in the process of urbanization,directly impacting their income.Based on the logic of property rights adjustment and the theory of household development,this study uses national rural survey data conducted by the research group in 2018,and the data from China City Statistical Yearbook and employs the propensity score matching method and multiple linear regression model to examine the impact of land transfer on the income gap among rural households.The results show that,on the whole,the institutional design of land transfer has a positive effect on narrowing the income gap among rural households,and land transfer significantly reduces the income gap.At the same time,the effect of land transfer on the income gap is affected by the characteristics of household development.The household development goals,intergenerational connections and household life cycle affect the positive effect of land transfer on income gap through different pathways.To explore the impact of land transfer on rural household income gap,we need to consider the top-down path of property rights and the bottom-up path of household development.