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Understanding Chinese consumption: The impact of hukou

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  • Dreger, Christian
  • Wang, Tongsan
  • Zhang, Yanqun

Abstract

Capital investment and exports have driven China's remarkable economic growth for decades, but recent trends have put pressure on the government to move to a more consumption- driven model of growth. Unfortunately, China's institutional framework does little at the moment to spur household consumption. While the country's weak social security setup and highly regulated financial markets are routinely cited as disincentives to private consumption, the role of the hukou household registration system in depressing consumption gets less attention. Controlling for income levels on datasets from 2002 and 2007, we show the average propensity to consume is significantly lower for internal migrants to cities. Official figures suggest that China in 2013 had about 260 million internal migrants. These individuals are often separated from their families for long periods and denied access to public services in the cities where they work. The government's current urbanization strategy calls for increasing migrant populations in cities, which, in the absence of hukou reform, is likely to further dampen consumption.

Suggested Citation

  • Dreger, Christian & Wang, Tongsan & Zhang, Yanqun, 2014. "Understanding Chinese consumption: The impact of hukou," BOFIT Discussion Papers 7/2014, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:bofitp:bdp2014_007
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    2. Yanxu Li & Zhenfa Xie & Bo Li & Muhammad Mohiuddin, 2022. "The Impacts of In Situ Urbanization on Housing, Mobility and Employment of Local Residents in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-21, July.
    3. Yang, Ziyan, 2020. "Contract design in China’s rural land rental market: Contractual flexibility and rental payments," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 15-43.
    4. Dreger, Christian & Zhang, Yanqun, 2014. "Does the economic integration of China affect growth and inflation in industrial countries?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 184-189.
    5. Jingwen Tan & Shixi Kang, 2021. "Finding the Instrumental Variables of Household Registration: A discussion of the impact of China's household registration system on the citizenship of the migrant population," Papers 2112.07268, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2021.
    6. Robert J R Elliott & Puyang Sun & Tong Zhu, 2014. "Urbanization and Energy Intensity: A Province-level Study for China," Discussion Papers 14-05, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    7. Lei Niu & Lulu Yuan & Zhongmin Ding & Yifu Zhao, 2023. "How Do Support Pressure and Urban Housing Purchase Affect the Homecoming Decisions of Rural Migrant Workers? Evidence from Rural China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-28, July.
    8. Chen, Xiaofen, 2018. "Why do migrant households consume so little?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 197-209.
    9. Cheng, Zhiming, 2021. "Education and consumption: Evidence from migrants in Chinese cities," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 206-215.
    10. Bradlow, Benjamin H., 2018. "Embeddedness and Cohesion: Regimes of Urban Public Goods Distribution," SocArXiv h39jw, Center for Open Science.
    11. Dreger, Christian & Zhang, Yanqun, 2017. "The Hukou Impact on the Chinese Wage Structure," IZA Discussion Papers 10720, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Ekaterina Arapova, 2018. "Determinants Of Household Final Consumption Expenditures In Asian Countries: A Panel Model, 1991-2015," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 18(1), pages 121-140.
    13. Lin, Carl & van der Meulen Rodgers, Yana, 2018. "Parental Migration Decisions and Child Health Outcomes: Evidence from China," IZA Discussion Papers 11986, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Elliott, Robert J.R. & Sun, Puyang & Zhu, Tong, 2017. "The direct and indirect effect of urbanization on energy intensity: A province-level study for China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 677-692.
    15. Yuke He & Geng Niu & Guochang Zhao, 2022. "Parents' pension eligibility and migrant consumption in urban China: Evidence from a quasi‐experiment," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 2317-2335, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Chinese private consumption; urbanization strategy; hukou system;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

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