Labor migration and earnings differences: The case of rural China

Economic Development and Cultural Change

Volumn 47, Issue 4, 1999, Pages 767-782

  Zhao, Yaohui ^a  

^a PEKING UNIVERSITY   (China)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

LABOR MIGRATION; MIGRATION DETERMINANT; RURAL SOCIETY; WAGE;

CHINA; SICHUAN PROVINCE;

EID: 0032734725     PISSN: 00130079     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/452431     Document Type: Article

References (31)

1. The negative portrayal of migrants is documented in Dalia Daven, "Migrants and the Media: Concerns about Rural Migration in the Chinese Press," in Rural Labor Flows in China, ed. Loraine West and Yaohui Zhao (University of California Press, in press).
2. For an analysis of China's migration history since 1949, see Yaohui Zhao, "Re-Examining the History of Rural-Urban Migration in China, 1949-86" (unpublished manuscript, 1998).
3. See Laiyun Sheng and Meijun Sun, "A Study of the Income Gap between Urban and Rural Populations," Beijing Jingji Yu Guanli Yanjiu (December 1994), pp. 34-45.
4. State Statistical Bureau (SSB), China Statistical Yearbook, 1996 (Beijing: China Statistical Bureau Press, 1996), p. 73.
5. Ibid., pp. 90-91.
6. The estimate is made by combining and comparing data from the SSB's usual questionnaire and the supplemental questionnaire for migrants. Using usual SSB data will result in 17% less (1,135.6 yuan) for the same households.
7. SSB, p. 91.
8. The ratio of workers in farm activities (including rural nonfarm and migrant work) in the sample is 17.8%. It is less than the 25.6% given in SSB (pp. 91) for Sichuan in 1995, but it is not clear how they estimated their number.
9. It is normally easy for people with higher education to switch registration from rural to urban status and to enjoy the same benefits as urbanites. The fact that people with higher education stayed in rural areas indicates that there were other reasons for their choice. Note that enrollment in higher education is extremely competitive and usually is not a matter of choice.
10. See Yair Mundlak, "Intersectoral Factor Mobility and Agricultural Growth" (International Food Policy Resource Institute, Washington, D.C., 1979).
11. See Larry Sjastaad, "The Cost and Returns to Human Migration," Journal of Political Economy 70, no. 5 (1962): 80-93.
12. See Michael P. Todaro, "A Model of Labor Migration and Urban Unemployment in Less Developed Countries," American Economic Review 59 (1969): 138-48.
13. See Aba Shwartz, "Interpreting the Effect of Distance on Migration," Journal of Political Economy 81 (September-October 1973): 1153-69
14. Sjastaad.
15. Rural Center for Economic Research (RCRE), "Labor Mobility in Rural China: Household Interviews" (unpublished manuscript, 1996).
16. Ibid.
17. Yaohui Zhao, "Labor Mobility, Labor Migration and Returns to Schooling in Rural China" (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1995).
18. Since the purpose of the models is to account for contributions to household earnings by workers in different sectors, I treat the number of workers in each sector as exogenous variables.
19. Many older people in rural areas participate in productive work even though survey takers do not count them as laborers.
20. Many studies that use other samples have also found low returns to schooling in rural China, in both farming and nonfarming sectors. See Yaohui Zhao, "Labor Migration and Returns to Rural Education in China," American Journal of Agricultural Economics 79 (November 1997): 1278-87; and Dennis T. Yang, "Knowledge Spillovers and Labor Assignments of the Farm Household" (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1994).
21. Many studies that use other samples have also found low returns to schooling in rural China, in both farming and nonfarming sectors. See Yaohui Zhao, "Labor Migration and Returns to Rural Education in China," American Journal of Agricultural Economics 79 (November 1997): 1278-87; and Dennis T. Yang, "Knowledge Spillovers and Labor Assignments of the Farm Household" (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1994).
22. Risk neutrality is implicitly assumed in the analysis, which means, rural people look at the level of net earnings differences, rather than the variation of the differences when making migration decisions.
23. The four cities are Beijing, Guangzhou, Wuhan, and Suzhou.
24. See RCRE (n. 15 above).
25. Ibid.
26. The data source is a Ministry of Labor survey; I computed the numbers.
27. Most cities do not grant permanent residency to migrant workers based on the length of their employment in the cities. A couple of cities, notably Shen-zhen and Shanghai, have promised to allow rural migrants to apply for permanent residency after a certain number of years, but it remains to be seen how many will actually get that status. Because of the high cost of schooling in urban public schools, some migrant communities established their own schools. However, these schools are considered illegal and are often shut down by urban authorities.
28. A one-bedroom apartment costs at least 1,000 yuan in Beijing. Farmhouses in the suburbs are less expensive, but there are usually no sanitary facilities inside the houses. A room in these houses costs several hundred yuan. Monthly wages of migrant workers averaged 553 yuan, according to the MOL survey of migrant workers.
29. RCRE, case no. Q1-113.
30. I owe this point to D. Gale Johnson.
31. For example, Beijing People's Government stipulates that any institution or person leasing housing to non-Beijing residents must obtain a houseleasing certificate from the district or county government and renew the certificate annually. The house or apartment must be privately owned and must be certified by the police bureau for meeting safety standards. An affidavit must be filed with a police bureau and family-planning agency in which the owner of the dwelling agrees to be responsible for preventing any crimes that may be committed in the house or apartment as well as for above-quota births, and they must pay a fee equivalent to 2% of the annual rent. See Beijing People's Government, Beijingshi waidi lai jing renyuan zulin fangwu zhian guanli guiding (Regulations on house leasing to non-Beijing residents), 1995.