IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v10y2023i1d10.1057_s41599-023-01795-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of labor mobility with fellow townsmen on the wages of rural migrants: evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Fanqiang Meng

    (School of Economics, Guangdong University of Finance and Economics)

  • Zhihui Liu

    (School of Economics, Guangdong University of Finance and Economics)

  • Hao Lin

    (Party School of C.P.C Taixing Committee)

  • Miraj Ahmed Bhuiyan

    (School of Economics, Guangdong University of Finance and Economics)

Abstract

Labor mobility is an inherent component of economic development and labor market changes. With globalization and urbanization, labor mobility is on the rise in many developing countries, and it is of great significance to study the economic outcomes and poverty alleviation effects of this phenomenon. This paper explores the impact of labor mobility on the wages of rural migrants when they move out with their fellow townsmen (folks from the same county). The study uses the China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS) data and applies the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) method for empirical analysis. Our results suggest that labor mobility with fellow townsmen significantly increases the wages of rural migrants. The paper shows two promotion mechanisms: mobility with fellow townsmen affects the wages of rural migrants by improving their ability to search for information and negotiate wages. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that mobility with fellow townsmen significantly increases the wages of rural migrants engaged in producer service, consumer service, blue-collar occupations, and working in state-owned and private enterprises. Furthermore, it has a more positive impact on the wages of older rural migrants from an intergenerational perspective. Interestingly, rural migrants may “give up” part of their wages to care for their families when they move with their spouses, parents, or children. Therefore, the government needs to take effective policy measures to promote the employment service system and improve the labor rights and interests protection mechanism for rural migrants.

Suggested Citation

  • Fanqiang Meng & Zhihui Liu & Hao Lin & Miraj Ahmed Bhuiyan, 2023. "The impact of labor mobility with fellow townsmen on the wages of rural migrants: evidence from China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:10:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-01795-8
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-023-01795-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-023-01795-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-023-01795-8?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. Pierre Cahuc & Fabien Postel-Vinay & Jean-Marc Robin, 2006. "Wage Bargaining with On-the-Job Search: Theory and Evidence," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(2), pages 323-364, March.
    2. Gary S. Becker, 1962. "Investment in Human Capital: A Theoretical Analysis," NBER Chapters, in: Investment in Human Beings, pages 9-49, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Olivier Blanchard & Francesco Giavazzi, 2003. "Macroeconomic Effects of Regulation and Deregulation in Goods and Labor Markets," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(3), pages 879-907.
    4. Selod, Harris & Shilpi, Forhad, 2021. "Rural-urban migration in developing countries: Lessons from the literature," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    5. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Introduction to "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings"," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 1-4, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Marianne Bertrand & Erzo F. P. Luttmer & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2000. "Network Effects and Welfare Cultures," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 1019-1055.
    7. Anna Piil Damm, 2009. "Ethnic Enclaves and Immigrant Labor Market Outcomes: Quasi-Experimental Evidence," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 27(2), pages 281-314, April.
    8. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1, June.
    9. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/dc0ckec3fcb29ms9850c12h1p is not listed on IDEAS
    10. David Lagakos, 2020. "Urban-Rural Gaps in the Developing World: Does Internal Migration Offer Opportunities?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(3), pages 174-192, Summer.
    11. Pierre Cahuc & Fabien Postel-Vinay & Jean-Marc Robin, 2006. "Wage bargaining with on-the-job search: theory and evidence," SciencePo Working papers hal-03471856, HAL.
    12. Haoyang Lyu & Zengchuan Dong & Mahendran Roobavannan & Jaya Kandasamy & Saket Pande, 2019. "Rural unemployment pushes migrants to urban areas in Jiangsu Province, China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 1-12, December.
    13. Jacob Mincer, 1958. "Investment in Human Capital and Personal Income Distribution," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 66(4), pages 281-281.
    14. Yu Xie & Margaret Gough, 2011. "Ethnic Enclaves and the Earnings of Immigrants," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(4), pages 1293-1315, November.
    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. Hui Hu & Yuqi Zhu & Chien-Chiang Lee & Alastair M. Morrison, 2023. "The effects of foreign product demand-labor transfer nexus on human capital investment in China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Kaizhi Yu & Yao Shi & Jiahan Feng, 2024. "The influence of robot applications on rural labor transfer," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-18, December.
    3. Qiao, Yuxuan & Ao, Xugao, 2024. "Digital transformation and rural labour force occupational mobility," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PB), pages 42-50.

    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. Hans Dietrich & Harald Pfeifer & Felix Wenzelmann, 2016. "The more they spend, the more I earn? Firms' training investments and post-training wages of apprentices," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0116, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    2. Yasser Razak Hussain & Pranab Mukhopadhyay, 2023. "How Much do Education, Experience, and Social Networks Impact Earnings in India? A Panel Data Analysis Disaggregated by Class, Gender, Caste and Religion," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    3. Kenneth L. Sørensen & Rune Vejlin, 2014. "Return To Experience And Initial Wage Level: Do Low Wage Workers Catch Up?," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 984-1006, September.
    4. Hans‐Peter Y. Qvist & Anders Holm & Martin D. Munk, 2021. "Demand and Supply Effects and Returns to College Education: Evidence from a Natural Experiment with Engineers in Denmark," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 123(2), pages 676-704, April.
    5. Andrea Leuermann & Sarah Necker, 2011. "Intergenerational Transmission of Risk Attitudes: A Revealed Preference Approach," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 412, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    6. Günalp, Burak & Cilasun, Seyit Mümin & Acar, Elif Öznur, 2013. "Male-Female Labor Market Participation and the Extent of Gender-Based Wage Discrimination in Turkey," MPRA Paper 51503, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Kazamaki Ottersten, Eugenia & Mellander, Erik & Meyerson, Eva M. & Nilson, Jörgen, 1994. "Pitfalls in the Measurement of the Return to Education: An Assessment Using Swedish Data," Working Paper Series 414, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    8. Farah Hani & Miguel Angel Santos, 2021. "Diagnosing Human Capital as a Binding Constraint to Growth: Tests, Symptoms and Prescriptions," Growth Lab Working Papers 168, Harvard's Growth Lab.
    9. Kyle Glenn, 2021. "Social Labor vs Human Capital: Competing Theories of Skills," Working Papers 2115, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.
    10. Elizabeth A. Corley & Barry Bozeman & Xuefan Zhang & Chin-Chang Tsai, 2019. "The expanded scientific and technical human capital model: the addition of a cultural dimension," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 681-699, June.
    11. Zveglich, Joseph E. & van der Meulen Rodgers, Yana & Laviña, Editha A., 2019. "Expected work experience and the gender wage gap: A new human capital measure," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 372-383.
    12. Necker, Sarah & Voskort, Andrea, 2014. "Intergenerational transmission of risk attitudes – A revealed preference approach," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 66-89.
    13. Pratap, Sangeeta & Quintin, Erwan, 2011. "Financial crises and labor market turbulence," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(6), pages 601-615.
    14. Ngo Van Long & Antoine Soubeyran & Raphael Soubeyran, 2014. "Knowledge acquisition within an organization: How to retain a knowledge worker using wage profile and non-monotonic knowledge accumulation," CIRANO Working Papers 2014s-32, CIRANO.
    15. Rosalia Castellano & Gennaro Punzo, 2011. "Education and Earnings Differentials: The Role of Family Background Across European Countries," Working Papers 28, AlmaLaurea Inter-University Consortium.
    16. Lourdes Badillo-Amador & Antonio García-Sánchez & Luis Vila, 2005. "Mismatches in the Spanish Labor Market: Education vs. Competence Match," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 11(1), pages 93-109, February.
    17. Carl Sanders & Christopher Taber, 2012. "Life-Cycle Wage Growth and Heterogeneous Human Capital," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 399-425, July.
    18. Alejos, Luis Alejandro, 2003. "Contribution of the determinants of income inequality in Guatemala," MPRA Paper 42757, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Maria Klonowska-Matynia & Radosław Sobko, 2021. "Spatial Analysis of the Relationship between Health Capital and the Level of Health Care Expenditure in Poland," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(Special 1), pages 133-151.
    20. Xin Zhao & Yishuo Jiao & Dan Wu, 2022. "The impact of Internet use on labor wage distortions: Empirical Evidence From China," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, May.

    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:pal:palcom:v:10:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-01795-8. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.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.