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Migration, Remittances and Rural Employment Patterns : Evidence from China

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  • Sylvie Démurger

    (Université de Lyon, Lyon, F-69007, France ; CNRS, GATE Lyon St Etienne,F-69130 Ecully, France)

  • Li Shi

    (School of Economics and Business Administration, Beijing Normal University, 19, Xinjiekouwai Dajie, Beijing 100875, China)

Abstract

This paper explores the rural labor market impact of migration in China using crosssectional data on rural households for the year 2007. A switching probit model is used to estimate the impact of belonging to a migrant-sending household on the individual occupational choice categorized in four binary decisions : farm work, wage work, self-employment and housework. The paper then goes on to estimate how the impact of migration differs across different types of migrant households identified along two additional lines : remittances and migration history. Results show that individual occupational choice in rural China is responsive to migration, at both the individual and the family levels, but the impacts differ : individual migration experience favors subsequent local off-farm work, whereas at the family level, migration drives the left-behinds to farming rather than to off-farm activities. Our results also point to the interplay of various channels through which migration influences rural employment patterns.

Suggested Citation

  • Sylvie Démurger & Li Shi, 2012. "Migration, Remittances and Rural Employment Patterns : Evidence from China," Working Papers 1230, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.
    • Handle: RePEc:gat:wpaper:1230
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    Cited by:

    1. Sylvie Démurger, 2015. "Migration and families left behind," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 144-144, April.
    2. Gatapia, Sophia Christianne M. & Dorado, Rowena A., 2016. "Employment Decision of Female Spouses of Filipino Overseas Contract Workers," Journal of Economics, Management & Agricultural Development, Journal of Economics, Management & Agricultural Development (JEMAD), vol. 2(1), June.
    3. Xu, Hao, 2017. "The time use pattern and labour supply of the left behind spouse and children in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(S), pages 77-101.
    4. Sylvie Démurger, 2012. "Mapping Modes of Rural Labour Migration in China," Working Papers halshs-00695632, HAL.
    5. Indra Kant Bharti & Tulika Tripathi, 2020. "Effect of Remittance on Intergenerational Mobility in Case of Occupation," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 63(4), pages 1203-1221, December.
    6. Démurger, Sylvie & Wang, Xiaoqian, 2016. "Remittances and expenditure patterns of the left behinds in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 177-190.
    7. Mehtap Akgüç & Corrado Giulietti & Klaus Zimmermann, 2014. "The RUMiC longitudinal survey: fostering research on labor markets in China," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-14, December.
    8. Ren Mu & Alan Brauw, 2015. "Migration and young child nutrition: evidence from rural China," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 28(3), pages 631-657, July.
    9. Murard, Elie, 2016. "Consumption and Leisure: The Welfare Impact of Migration on Family Left Behind," IZA Discussion Papers 10305, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Edoardo Cefala & Giovanni Facchini & Corrado Giulietti & Jackie Wahba & Chuhong Wang, 2019. "The survey on migration and the reshaping of consumption patterns (MARCO_P)," Discussion Papers 2019-05, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    11. Juliane Scheffel & Yiwei Zhang, 2019. "How does internal migration affect the emotional health of elderly parents left-behind?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(3), pages 953-980, July.
    12. Linxiu Zhang & Weiliang Su & Tor Eriksson & Chengfang Liu, 2016. "How Off-farm Employment Affects Technical Efficiency of China's Farms: The Case of Jiangsu," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 24(3), pages 37-51, May.
    13. Zai Liang & Feinuo Sun, 2020. "The lasting impact of parental migration on children's education and health outcomes: The case of China," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 43(9), pages 217-244.
    14. Arian Tahiri & Faruk Ahmeti & Burim Prenaj, 2023. "The Effect of International Migrant Remittances on Employment Patterns: Evidence from Kosovo," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 1, pages 126-142.
    15. Su, Weiliang & Eriksson, Tor & Zhang, Linxiu & Bai, Yunli, 2016. "Off-farm employment and time allocation in on-farm work in rural China from gender perspective," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 34-45.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    labor migration; labor supply; remittances; temporary migration; left-behind; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population
    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East

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