IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2020-150.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Transforming informal work and livelihoods in China

Author

Listed:
  • Carl Shu-Ming Lin
  • Linxiang Ye
  • Wei Zhang

Abstract

The informal sector has long been viewed as a locus of the disadvantaged, unskilled, and inexperienced workers in under-developed and developing economies. Workers in the informal sector, however, can learn skills and gain experience that could help them switch to better-paying jobs in the formal sector. But evidence of this is limited. China constitutes an important case study because it is the most populous country and has the largest labour force, consisting of over 290 million rural-to-urban migrants whose employment is mostly informal.

Suggested Citation

  • Carl Shu-Ming Lin & Linxiang Ye & Wei Zhang, 2020. "Transforming informal work and livelihoods in China," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2020-150, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2020-150
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2020-150.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Morduch, Jonathan & Sicular, Terry, 2000. "Politics, growth, and inequality in rural China: does it pay to join the Party?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(3), pages 331-356, September.
    2. MacKinnon, James G & Magee, Lonnie, 1990. "Transforming the Dependent Variable in Regression Models," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 31(2), pages 315-339, May.
    3. Liang, Zhe & Appleton, Simon & Song, Lina, 2016. "Informal Employment in China: Trends, Patterns and Determinants of Entry," IZA Discussion Papers 10139, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Enrique Alaniz & T.H. Gindling & Catherine Mata & Diego Rojas, 2020. "Transforming informal work and livelihoods in Costa Rica and Nicaragua," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2020-100, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Liu, Zhiqiang, 2003. "The Economic Impact and Determinants of Investment in Human and Political Capital in China," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(4), pages 823-849, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Masami Imai, 2006. "Mixing Family Business with Politics in Thailand," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 20(3), pages 241-256, September.
    2. Yang, Dennis Tao, 2005. "Determinants of schooling returns during transition: Evidence from Chinese cities," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 244-264, June.
    3. Tingqiu Cao & Xianhang Qian, 2021. "Political Capital and Household Income: Evidence from Twenty-Four Transition Countries," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 151-165, March.
    4. Markussen, Thomas & Ngo, Quang-Thanh, 2019. "Economic and non-economic returns to communist party membership in Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 370-384.
    5. Zhi Li & Hai Zhong, 2017. "The impact of higher education expansion on intergenerational mobility," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 25(4), pages 575-591, October.
    6. Lu, Jiangyong & Tao, Zhigang, 2010. "Determinants of entrepreneurial activities in China," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 261-273, May.
    7. Zhou, Wubiao, 2009. "Bank Financing in China's Private Sector: The Payoffs of Political Capital," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 787-799, April.
    8. Jin, Yanhong & Fan, Maoyong & Cheng, Mingwang & Shi, Qinghua, 2014. "The economic gains of cadre status in rural China: Investigating effects and mechanisms," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 185-200.
    9. Markussen, Thomas & Ngo, Quang-Thanh, 2019. "Economic and non-economic returns to communist party membership in Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 370-384.
    10. Li, Hongbin & Meng, Lingsheng & Wang, Qian & Zhou, Li-An, 2008. "Political connections, financing and firm performance: Evidence from Chinese private firms," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 283-299, October.
    11. Li, Hongbin & Meng, Lingsheng & Shi, Xinzheng & Wu, Binzhen, 2012. "Does having a cadre parent pay? Evidence from the first job offers of Chinese college graduates," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 513-520.
    12. LoPiccalo, Katherine, 2022. "Impact of broadband penetration on U.S. Farm productivity: A panel approach," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(9).
    13. Brown, Sarah & Greene, William H. & Harris, Mark N. & Taylor, Karl, 2015. "An inverse hyperbolic sine heteroskedastic latent class panel tobit model: An application to modelling charitable donations," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 228-236.
    14. Karel Janda, 2019. "Earnings Stability and Peer Company Selection for Multiple Based Indirect Valuation," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 69(1), pages 37-75, February.
    15. Simon Appleton & John Knight & Lina Song & Qingjie Xia, 2009. "The Economics of Communist Party Membership: The Curious Case of Rising Numbers and Wage Premium during China's Transition," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(2), pages 256-275.
    16. Mayneris, Florian & Poncet, Sandra & Zhang, Tao, 2018. "Improving or disappearing: Firm-level adjustments to minimum wages in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 20-42.
    17. Sangui Wang & Lijuan Zheng, 2024. "The Impacts of the Poverty Alleviation Relocation Program (PARP) on Households’ Education Investment: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment in Rural China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-23, May.
    18. Rosa Abraham, 2017. "Informality in the Indian Labour Market: An Analysis of Forms and Determinants," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 60(2), pages 191-215, June.
    19. Dominika Langenmayr & Franz Reiter, 2022. "Trading offshore: evidence on banks’ tax avoidance," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 124(3), pages 797-837, July.
    20. Steven Yen, 1995. "Alternative transformations in a class of limited dependent variable models: alcohol consumption by US women," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(8), pages 258-262.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    China; Informal sector; Livelihoods; Earnings;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2020-150. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.