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Educational Choice, Rural-urban Migration and Economic Development

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  • Pei-Ju Liao
  • Ping Wang
  • Yin-Chi Wang
  • Chong Kee Yip

Abstract

Observing rapid structural transformation accompanied by a continual process of rural to urban migration in many developing countries, we construct a micro founded dynamic framework to explore how important education-based migration is, as opposed to work-based migration, for economic development, urbanization and city workforce composition. We then calibrate our model to fit the data from China over the period from 1980 to 2007, a developing economy featuring not only large migration flows but major institutional reforms that may affect work and education based migration differently. We find that, although education-based migration only amounts to one-fifth of that of work-based migration, its contribution to the enhancement of per capita output is larger than that of work-based migration. Moreover, the abolishment of the government job assignment for college graduates and the relaxation of the work-based migration have limited effects on economic development and urbanization. Furthermore, the increase in college admission selectivity for rural students plays a crucial but negative role in China's development, lowering per capita output and worsening the high-skilled employment share in urban areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Pei-Ju Liao & Ping Wang & Yin-Chi Wang & Chong Kee Yip, 2017. "Educational Choice, Rural-urban Migration and Economic Development," NBER Working Papers 23939, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23939
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    Cited by:

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    2. Bairoliya, Neha & Miller, Ray, 2021. "Social insurance, demographics, and rural-urban migration in China," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    3. Kang, Lili & Peng, Fei & Zhu, Yu, 2018. "Returns to higher education subjects and tiers in China - Evidence from the China Family Panel Studies," GLO Discussion Paper Series 238, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    4. Pei-Ju Liao & Ping Wang & Yin-Chi Wang & Chong K. Yip, 2020. "Fertility and Internal Migration," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 102(4), pages 429-445, October.
    5. Garriga, Carlos & Hedlund, Aaron & Tang, Yang & Wang, Ping, 2021. "Rural-urban migration and house prices in China," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    6. Yongheng Deng & Jing Wu & Yang Tang & ping wang, 2019. "Spatial Misallocation in Chinese Housing and Land Markets," 2019 Meeting Papers 1351, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    7. Ding, Xiaozhou, 2021. "College education and internal migration in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    8. Monteforte, Fabio, 2020. "Structural change, the push-pull hypothesis and the Spanish labour market," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 148-169.
    9. William R. Emmons & Jacob Haas & Christopher J. Neely, 2020. "Responses of International Central Banks to the COVID-19 Crisis," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 102(4), pages 338-384, October.
    10. Yao, Yao, 2019. "Does higher education expansion enhance productivity?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 169-194.
    11. Shihui Ma, 2021. "Diverging College Premiums: A General Equilibrium Framework on China's College Expansion Policy," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 22(2), pages 289-315, November.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population
    • R28 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Government Policy

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