IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/61604.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Migration Decision and Rural Income Inequality in Northwestern China

Author

Listed:
  • Hua, Yue

Abstract

Using rural household survey data from northwestern China, this study examines the decision between internal migration and home production for rural households and its impact on rural income distribution. By constructing counterfactual scenarios under which households are allowed to switch freely between internal migration and home production, this study finds that the migrant households in the studied region could have earned more had they choose not to migrate and work in local sectors, given the results that show remittances earned by the migrant households are less than their simulated home production earnings. The findings also illustrate that there would also be less income inequality in this area if migrants choose to work locally. These results are compatible with the fact that the internal migration in the study area is very likely to be involuntary, primarily due to the lack of arable land and insufficient local nonfarm job opportunities, usually provided by township and village enterprises

Suggested Citation

  • Hua, Yue, 2014. "Migration Decision and Rural Income Inequality in Northwestern China," MPRA Paper 61604, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 20 Nov 2015.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:61604
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/61604/1/MPRA_paper_61604.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Du, Yang & Park, Albert & Wang, Sangui, 2005. "Migration and rural poverty in China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 688-709, December.
    2. Zhao, Yaohui, 1999. "Labor Migration and Earnings Differences: The Case of Rural China," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47(4), pages 767-782, July.
    3. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    4. Stark, Oded & Helmenstein, Christian & Prskawetz, Alexia, 1997. "A brain gain with a brain drain," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 227-234, August.
    5. Chinmay, Tumbe, 2011. "Remittances in India: Facts and Issues," MPRA Paper 29983, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Stark, Oded & Taylor, J. Edward & Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 1988. "Migration, remittances and inequality : A sensitivity analysis using the extended Gini index," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 309-322, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Nong Zhu & Xubei Luo, 2014. "The Impact of migration on rural poverty and inequality: a case study in China," CIRANO Working Papers 2014s-08, CIRANO.
    2. Nong Zhu & Xubei Luo, 2010. "The impact of migration on rural poverty and inequality: a case study in China," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 41(2), pages 191-204, March.
    3. Thomas Gries & Manfred Kraft & Manuel Simon, 2016. "Explaining inter-provincial migration in China," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(4), pages 709-731, November.
    4. Qu, Zhaopeng (Frank) & Zhao, Zhong, 2008. "Urban-Rural Consumption Inequality in China from 1988 to 2002: Evidence from Quantile Regression Decomposition," IZA Discussion Papers 3659, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Barham, Bradford & Boucher, Stephen, 1998. "Migration, remittances, and inequality: estimating the net effects of migration on income distribution," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 307-331, April.
    6. Démurger, Sylvie & Xu, Hui, 2011. "Return Migrants: The Rise of New Entrepreneurs in Rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 1847-1861.
    7. Jianmei Zhao & Peter J. Barry, 2014. "Income Diversification of Rural Households in China," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 62(3), pages 307-324, September.
    8. Linxiu Zhang & Scott Rozelle & Chengfang Liu & Susan Olivia & Alan de Brauw & Qiang Li, 2006. "Feminization of Agriculture in China : Debunking the Myth and Measuring the Consequence of Women Participation in Agriculture," World Bank Publications - Reports 9103, The World Bank Group.
    9. Dustmann, Christian & Glitz, Albrecht, 2011. "Migration and Education," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 327-439, Elsevier.
    10. Wei Ha & Junjian Yi & Junsen Zhang, 2009. "Inequality and Internal Migration in China: Evidence from Village Panel Data," Human Development Research Papers (2009 to present) HDRP-2009-27, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), revised Jul 2009.
    11. Jianmei ZHAO, 2014. "Rural income diversification patterns and their determinants in China," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 60(5), pages 219-231.
    12. Zhu, Nong & Luo, Xubei, 2008. "The impact of remittances on rural poverty and inequality in China," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4637, The World Bank.
    13. de Brauw, Alan & Rozelle, Scott, 2008. "Migration and household investment in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 320-335, June.
    14. Jens Ruhose, 2015. "Microeconometric Analyses on Economic Consequences of Selective Migration," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 61, May.
    15. Jean-Paul Azam & Flore Gubert, 2005. "Those in Kayes. The Impact of Remittances on Their Recipients in Africa," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 56(6), pages 1331-1358.
    16. Thierry Baudassé & Rémi Bazillier, 2010. "Migration and Trade Union Rights," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 146(IV), pages 677-707, December.
    17. Azam, Jean-Paul & Gubert, Flore, 2005. "Migrant Remittances and Economic Development in Africa: A Review of Evidence," IDEI Working Papers 354, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    18. Xiao, Wei & Zhao, Guochang, 2020. "Who is affected: Influence of agricultural land on occupational choices of peasants in China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    19. Nong Zhu, 2002. "Impact des écarts de revenu sur les décisions de migration en Chine," Revue d’économie du développement, De Boeck Université, vol. 10(3), pages 135-158.
    20. Terry Sicular & Yaohui Zhao, 2002. "Earnings and Labor Mobility in Rural China: Implications for China's WTO Entry," University of Western Ontario, Economic Policy Research Institute Working Papers 20028, University of Western Ontario, Economic Policy Research Institute.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Internal Migration; Home Production; Remittances; Income Inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • P25 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pra:mprapa:61604. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.