IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i18p7650-d414538.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Heterogeneity of Internal Migrant Household Consumption in Host Cities: A Comparison of Skilled Migrants and Labor Migrants in China

Author

Listed:
  • Chunshan Zhou

    (School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, No. 135, Xingang Xi Road, Guangzhou 510275, China
    Key Laboratory of the Sustainable, Development of Xinjiang’s Historical and Cultural Tourism, Urumqi 830049, China)

  • Ming Li

    (School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, No. 135, Xingang Xi Road, Guangzhou 510275, China)

  • Guojun Zhang

    (School of Public Administration, Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, No.21 Luntou Road, Guangzhou 510320, China)

  • Yuqu Wang

    (School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, No. 135, Xingang Xi Road, Guangzhou 510275, China)

  • Song Liu

    (School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, No. 135, Xingang Xi Road, Guangzhou 510275, China)

Abstract

Improvements in migrant families’ consumption are crucial to economic development after the economic crisis. With China’s participation in economic globalization, industrial transformation and college enrolment expansion, a new type of migrant worker has emerged, skilled migrants, who have attained a college diploma or above and whose consumption behaviors differ from traditional labor migrants because education helps to improve the income and consumption structure. This study uses comparative analysis and Tobit model to examine differences in income and consumption patterns, and determinants of consumption between skilled migrant and labor migrant households. Education helps to increase income and alter consumption behaviors. The income and consumption levels of skilled migrant households are significantly higher than the levels of labor migrant households, and the propensity to consume among skilled migrant households is higher than among labor migrant households. Moreover, the consumption structure of skilled migrant households is more advanced than that of labor migrant households. Education indirectly influences consumption by influencing economic, familial, individual, settlement intention, and social security factors. These factors have different effects on skilled migrant and labor migrant household consumption. Authorities should improve the education level and social welfare system to cover migrant households, especially for low-income labor migrants, to improve their consumption.

Suggested Citation

  • Chunshan Zhou & Ming Li & Guojun Zhang & Yuqu Wang & Song Liu, 2020. "Heterogeneity of Internal Migrant Household Consumption in Host Cities: A Comparison of Skilled Migrants and Labor Migrants in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-16, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:18:p:7650-:d:414538
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/18/7650/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/18/7650/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yoko Niimi & Thai Hung Pham & Barry Reilly, 2009. "Determinants of Remittances: Recent Evidence Using Data on Internal Migrants in Vietnam," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 19-39, March.
    2. Lugauer, Steven & Ni, Jinlan & Yin, Zhichao, 2019. "Chinese household saving and dependent children: Theory and evidence," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    3. Su, Yaqin & Tesfazion, Petros & Zhao, Zhong, 2018. "Where are the migrants from? Inter- vs. intra-provincial rural-urban migration in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 142-155.
    4. Can Cui, 2020. "Housing career disparities in urban China: A comparison between skilled migrants and locals in Nanjing," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(3), pages 546-562, February.
    5. Sibelle Diniz & Ana Machado, 2011. "Analysis of the consumption of artistic-cultural goods and services in Brazil," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 35(1), pages 1-18, February.
    6. Xiaohong Deng & Lei Gong & Yanfang Gao & Xiaoqing Cui & Ke Xu, 2018. "Internal Differentiation within the Rural Migrant Population from the Sustainable Urban Development Perspective: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-15, December.
    7. Joanne Xiaolei Qian & Russell Smyth, 2011. "Educational expenditure in urban China: income effects, family characteristics and the demand for domestic and overseas education," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(24), pages 3379-3394.
    8. Liqiu Zhao & Shouying Liu & Wei Zhang, 2018. "New Trends in Internal Migration in China: Profiles of the New†generation Migrants," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 26(1), pages 18-41, January.
    9. Xin Gu & Zhang-Yue Zhou & Yan-Rui Wu, 2019. "Understanding China’S Urban Consumption Patterns: New Estimates And Implications," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 64(04), pages 961-981, September.
    10. Bai, Chong-En & Wu, Binzhen, 2014. "Health insurance and consumption: Evidence from China’s New Cooperative Medical Scheme," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 450-469.
    11. Chen, Yuanyuan & Feng, Shuaizhang, 2013. "Access to public schools and the education of migrant children in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 75-88.
    12. Nguyen, Giang, 2018. "Consumption behavior of migrant households in Vietnam: Remittances, duration of stay, and the household registration system," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 1-12.
    13. Tao Xu, 2017. "Income Diversification and Rural Consumption—Evidence from Chinese Provincial Panel Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-14, June.
    14. Hongyun Han & Fan Si, 2020. "How Does the Composition of Asset Portfolios Affect Household Consumption: Evidence from China Based on Micro Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-17, April.
    15. Chen, Xiaofen, 2018. "Why do migrant households consume so little?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 197-209.
    16. Hung Van Vu, 2020. "The Impact of Education on Household Income in Rural Vietnam," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-8, February.
    17. Guangzhong Cao & Kai Li & Ruimin Wang & Tao Liu, 2017. "Consumption Structure of Migrant Worker Families in China," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 25(4), pages 1-21, July.
    18. Chi, Wei & Qian, Xiaoye, 2016. "Human capital investment in children: An empirical study of household child education expenditure in China, 2007 and 2011," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 52-65.
    19. Junge, Vera & Revilla Diez, Javier & Schätzl, Ludwig, 2015. "Determinants and Consequences of Internal Return Migration in Thailand and Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 94-106.
    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. Yuqu Wang & Zehong Wang & Chunshan Zhou & Ying Liu & Song Liu, 2020. "On the Settlement of the Floating Population in the Pearl River Delta: Understanding the Factors of Permanent Settlement Intention versus Housing Purchase Actions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-20, November.
    2. Junjie Gao & Lyubing Feng & Xianguo Yao, 2021. "Information Transmission Mechanism of Inequality of Opportunity and Effort on Settlement Intention," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-17, April.
    3. Xing Xiong & Xinghou Yu & Yuxin Wang, 2022. "The impact of basic public services on residents’ consumption in China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-8, December.
    4. Chunshan Zhou & Ming Li & Guojun Zhang & Jing Chen & Rongrong Zhang & Yongwang Cao, 2021. "Spatiotemporal characteristics and determinants of internal migrant population distribution in China from the perspective of urban agglomerations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(2), pages 1-19, February.

    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. 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).
    2. Cheng, Zhiming, 2021. "Education and consumption: Evidence from migrants in Chinese cities," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 206-215.
    3. Hu, Yun-Zhi & Xuan, Ye & Wang, Hai-Feng, 2024. "Does “son preference” affect rural floating parents’ willingness to settle in towns and cities?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(PB), pages 485-510.
    4. Le Wen & Krishna P. Paudel & Qinying He, 2022. "Temporary Migration and Savings Rates: Evidence from China," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(6), pages 2810-2849, December.
    5. Dong, Xiaoqi & Liang, Yinhe & Zhang, Jiawei, 2023. "Fertility responses to the relaxation of migration restrictions: Evidence from the Hukou reform in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    6. Misuraca, Roberta & Zimmermann, Klaus, 2024. "Migration and Consumption," MERIT Working Papers 2024-006, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    7. Peng, Fei & Anwar, Sajid & Kang, Lili, 2022. "Number of siblings, access to treated water and returns to education in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 526-538.
    8. Bierkamp, Sina & Nguyen, Trung Thanh & Grote, Ulrike, 2021. "Environmental income and remittances: Evidence from rural central highlands of Vietnam," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    9. Chen, Yuanyuan & Yuan, Meng & Zhang, Min, 2023. "Income inequality and educational expenditures on children: Evidence from the China Family Panel Studies," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    10. Hao Chen & Lei Wang & Yanxia Wei & Bo Ye & Junming Dai & Junling Gao & Fan Wang & Hua Fu, 2019. "The Potential Psychological Mechanism of Subjective Well-Being in Migrant Workers: A Structural Equation Models Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-13, June.
    11. Wang, Haining & Cheng, Zhiming & Smyth, Russell, 2022. "Parental misbeliefs and household investment in children's education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    12. Bollinger, Christopher & Ding, Xiaozhou & Lugauer, Steven, 2022. "The expansion of higher education and household saving in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    13. Wang, Haining & Cheng, Zhiming, 2022. "Kids eat free: School feeding and family spending on education," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 196-212.
    14. Yiwen Chen & Ioana Salagean & Benteng Zou, 2024. "Private Educational Expenditure Inequality between Migrant and Urban Households in China’s Cities," Economies, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-22, October.
    15. Tan, Weiqiang & Xie, Chenxin & Ye, Dezhu, 2024. "Do urban educational resources affect corporate labor costs?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    16. Ye, Juntao & Cai, Liming & Shi, Xinjie & Cheng, Mingwang, 2024. "Pursuing a brighter future: Impact of the Hukou reform on human capital investment in migrant children in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    17. Christine Wen & Jeremy L. Wallace, 2019. "Toward Human-Centered Urbanization? Housing Ownership and Access to Social Insurance Among Migrant Households in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-14, June.
    18. Wang, Haining & Cheng, Zhiming & Smyth, Russell, 2024. "Parental early-life exposure to land reform and household investment in children’s education," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    19. Wang, Haining & Cheng, Zhiming, 2021. "Mama loves you: The gender wage gap and expenditure on children's education in China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 1015-1034.
    20. Ye Ye & Rosmini Omar & Binyao Ning & Hiram Ting, 2020. "Intergenerational Transmission of Occupation: A Qualitative Inquiry into Frontline Factory Workers in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-17, October.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:18:p:7650-:d:414538. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.