IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/chieco/v38y2016icp108-115.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sectoral asymmetries and a social-welfare interpretation of Hukou

Author

Listed:
  • Gersovitz, Mark

Abstract

The Hukou system's restriction of Chinese internal migration is controversial. This paper models internal migration in a dual economy and assesses the social welfare consequences of the Hukou system. It contrasts the effects of absolute prohibition of migration with the mere exclusion of migrants from certain services such as health care and education. Asymmetries between the rural and urban sectors mean that optimality may require different levels of utility in the two sectors. The existence of a floating population, however, is inconsistent with an optimal labor allocation.

Suggested Citation

  • Gersovitz, Mark, 2016. "Sectoral asymmetries and a social-welfare interpretation of Hukou," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 108-115.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:38:y:2016:i:c:p:108-115
    DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2015.11.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X15001297
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.chieco.2015.11.003?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Besley, Timothy & Coate, Stephen & Loury, Glenn, 1993. "The Economics of Rotating Savings and Credit Associations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(4), pages 792-810, September.
    2. John Giles & Ren Mu, 2018. "Village Political Economy, Land Tenure Insecurity, and the Rural to Urban Migration Decision: Evidence from China," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 100(2), pages 521-544.
    3. Whalley, John & Zhang, Shunming, 2007. "A numerical simulation analysis of (Hukou) labour mobility restrictions in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 392-410, July.
    4. Arnott, Richard J & Gersovitz, Mark, 1986. "Social Welfare Underpinnings of Urban Bias and Unemployment," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 96(382), pages 413-424, June.
    5. Ng Yew Kwang, 1965. "Why do People Buy Lottery Tickets? Choices Involving Risk and the Indivisibility of Expenditure," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 73(5), pages 530-530.
    6. repec:bla:scandj:v:79:y:1977:i:3:p:301-11 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shao, Shuai & Tian, Zhihua & Zhang, Yan & Li, Baoli, 2023. "The housing status and two-child fertility willingness of floating population: Evidence from the Chinese General Social Survey," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 247-266.
    2. Xiaoyu Wu & Jianmei Zhao, 2020. "Risk sharing, siblings, and household equity investment: evidence from urban China," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(2), pages 461-482, April.
    3. Shao, Qinglong & Kostka, Genia, 2023. "The COVID-19 pandemic and deepening digital inequalities in China," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(10).
    4. Tan, Jing & Xu, Hao & Yu, Jingwen, 2022. "The effect of homeownership on migrant household savings: Evidence from the removal of home purchase restrictions in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).

    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. Abbi Kedir & Richard Disney & Indraneel Dasgupta, 2011. "Why Use Roscas When You Can Use Banks? Theory And Evidence From Ethiopia," Discussion Papers 11/05, University of Nottingham, CREDIT.
    2. Mark Gersovitz, 2018. "The allocation of health (and other professional) personnel to rural areas of poor countries," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 390-403, February.
    3. Michael A. Sadler, 2000. "Escaping Poverty: Risk-Taking and Endogenous Inequality in a Model of Equilibrium Growth," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 3(4), pages 704-725, October.
    4. Crossley, Thomas F. & Low, Hamish & Smith, Sarah, 2016. "Do consumers gamble to convexify?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 131(PA), pages 276-291.
    5. Thomas Gall, 2008. "Lotteries, inequality, and market imperfection: Galor and Zeira go gambling," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 34(2), pages 359-382, February.
    6. Adnan Shoaib & Muhammad Ayub Siddiqui, 2020. "Why do people participate in ROSCA saving schemes? Findings from a qualitative empirical study," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 47(2), pages 177-189, June.
    7. Mao, Luke Lunhua & Zhang, James J. & Connaughton, Daniel P., 2015. "Sports gambling as consumption: Evidence from demand for sports lottery," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 436-447.
    8. Siwan Anderson & Jean-Marie Baland, 2002. "The Economics of Roscas and Intrahousehold Resource Allocation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(3), pages 963-995.
    9. Brad Taylor, 2013. "Analytic radicalism," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 166-172, June.
    10. Kala Krishna & Cemile Yavas, 2004. "Lumpy consumer durables, market power, and endogenous business cycles," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 37(2), pages 375-391, May.
    11. World Bank, 2004. "Sri Lanka - Reshaping Economic Geography : Connecting People to Prosperity," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 21549.
    12. Mullan, Katrina & Grosjean, Pauline & Kontoleon, Andreas, 2011. "Land Tenure Arrangements and Rural-Urban Migration in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 123-133, January.
    13. Song, Yang, 2013. "Rising Chinese regional income inequality: The role of fiscal decentralization," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 294-309.
    14. Richard Mussa, 2013. "Rural--urban differences in parental spending on children's primary education in Malawi," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(6), pages 789-811, December.
    15. Lehmann, Erik E. & Warning, Susanne, 2003. "The impact of gender on individual decisions: Evidence from the "Millionaire Show"," Discussion Papers, Series I 325, University of Konstanz, Department of Economics.
    16. Vendryes, Thomas, 2011. "Migration constraints and development: Hukou and capital accumulation in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 669-692.
    17. Luigi Minale, 2018. "Agricultural productivity shocks, labour reallocation and rural–urban migration in China," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 795-821.
    18. William R. Emmons & Frank A. Schmid, 2002. "Pricing and Dividend Policies in Open Credit Cooperatives," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 158(2), pages 234-255, June.
    19. Luke Lunhua Mao & James J Zhang & Daniel P Connaughton, 2015. "Determinants of Demand for Sports Lottery: Insights from a Multilevel Model," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 5(8), pages 973-987, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Hukou; Migration; Restrictions; China;
    All these keywords.

    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:eee:chieco:v:38:y:2016:i:c:p:108-115. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/chieco .

    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.