IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jregsc/v64y2024i3p840-865.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effects of robots on internal migration: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Xiaoyu Bian
  • Guangsu Zhou

Abstract

China has experienced a boom of industrial robots in the past decade. Under the shock of robotization on labor market, migration is a critical way to rebalance the economy. While many studies have investigated the influence of robotization on labor market in the automation‐advanced countries, few works shed light on the situation in the emerging market. We provide empirical evidence on the effect of industrial robots on intercity migration in China. We find that, industrial robot adoption has a significant negative effect on the net inflow migration by reducing population inflows, while has little effect on population outflows. The decline in population inflows is concentrated among low‐skilled migrants who are younger, less educated and in manufacturing sectors, because they are more likely to experience unemployment and wage declines in the face of industrial robots. The analysis of migration cost demonstrates that the negative impact of industrial robots on population inflows increases with the longer migration distances, higher living costs, and greater institutional entry barriers caused by Hukou Registration System in China.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiaoyu Bian & Guangsu Zhou, 2024. "The effects of robots on internal migration: Evidence from China," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(3), pages 840-865, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jregsc:v:64:y:2024:i:3:p:840-865
    DOI: 10.1111/jors.12691
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jors.12691
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jors.12691?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    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:bla:jregsc:v:64:y:2024:i:3:p:840-865. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-4146 .

    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.