Digital Roots or Digital Routes? Broadband Expansion and the Rural‐Urban Migration in China

ABSTRACTThis article investigates how land acquisition during urbanization affects labor allocation decisions of farm households in China. We develop an agricultural household model by including land acquisition to examine its impacts on nonfarm labor participation and income. Two data sets (self-designed household surveys at Xingwen County in 2012 and the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) data covering 29 provinces in 2013) are adopted for empirical analysis. The results find that land reduction has significantly positive effects on the probability and the share of family nonfarm labor allocation from both data sets. We also find that land acquisition increases the household income of the land acquisition group in CHFS data.

In light of the rapid urbanization of the world’s population over the past decades, there is a growing concern about the environmental impacts of urban population growth. Rural–urban migration is a particularly important component of the urbanization process in developing countries and is often considered to be detrimental to urban environmental conditions. However, few studies have explicitly examined the presumed negative impacts of in-migration on the natural environment of cities. The continuously increasing volume of rural–urban labor migration in China since the early 1980s has formed the largest population flow in world history. This study links the existing literature on population–environment and urbanization–environment interactions by empirically assessing the relationship between rural–urban migration and urban air conditions in China. A two-period (2004 and 2010) longitudinal dataset for the 113 key environmental protection cities of China was constructed based on multiple data sources. We applied the STIRPAT equation using conventional and spatial panel regression models to examine whether rural–urban migration flows were associated with air pollution in cities. Results show a strong negative association of in-migration with urban air quality even after controlling for the effects of other population, affluence, and technology factors. Findings from this research can contribute to a better understanding of the environmental consequences of rural–urban migration in China, with broader implications for sustainable development research and policies.

Using China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) data from 2013–2019, this paper explores the relation between family changes and life insurance demand in a dynamic framework. We find that experiencing a divorce event is associated with 0.0459 and 9.2967 increases in the probability and volume of life insurance holding, and a 0.2904 increase in ratio of life insurance premium to income, respectively. Conversely, having a child is associated with decreases by 0.0366 and 7.9362 in the probability and volume of life insurance holding, and 0.2646 in the ratio of life insurance premium to income, respectively. Heterogeneity analysis reveals variations based on individuals’ dependency ratios. We expand the research on factors influencing life insurance demand.

Based on China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) data from 2019, this paper explores the impact of the residential pattern of coresidence with parents on the labor market performance of women in married families with minor children. The study finds that coresidence with parents significantly increases the possibility of female labor market participation and positively impacts women's employment income. To overcome the potential endogeneity problem of residential patterns, this paper uses the Heckman two-step method and the conditional mixed process estimation method (CMP method) for regression, and the conclusions remain robust. The mechanism analysis shows that coresidence with parents has both grandchild care and elderly care factors, which have a spillover effect and a crowding-out effect on female labor market performance, respectively. Since the spillover effect is more significant than the crowding-out effect, coresidence with parents positively impacts women's labor market performance. The heterogeneity analysis shows that in terms of labor force participation rate, coresidence with parents has a more significant impact on women in families with children aged 0-6, women in families without boys, and women in families with employed husbands. In terms of income, coresidence with parents has a more significant impact on women in families with employed husbands. This study provides a new perspective for promoting female labor market performance and can serve as a reference for future policy formulation.

Modeling heterogeneous vehicle ownership in China: A case study based on the Chinese national survey

Despite the increased focus on housing choices among rural–urban migrants in China, there is a lack of studies on city size and housing purchase preferences. In this paper, we extend the conceptual framework of the Rosen–Roback model to analyse how city size affects rural–urban migrants’ housing purchase intention, and find that the impact of city size on the willingness to buy a house in the host city for migrants has an inverted U shape by using the China Migrants Dynamic Survey of 2014. To explain this phenomenon, we further adopt the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition, which shows that rural–urban migrants have achieved a spatial equilibrium between housing costs and city amenities in large cities, compared with megacities and small cities. Specifically, the amenities in large cities can compensate for the negative impact of the high housing cost, making these large cities more attractive than small ones for rural–urban migrants, while rural migrants have to bear high housing prices and exclusive urban welfare because of the strict household registration system in megacities. This study thus sheds new light on the adoption of diversified housing policies to solve the housing problems of rural–urban migrants in China by considering city size.

Rural–urban migrants in China often experience poor living conditions and are less likely to be homeowners than urban–urban migrants. This study aims to investigate whether the homeownership gap between rural–urban migrants and urban–urban migrants in China vary by income. We explore the homeownership gap between the two migrant groups using the National Migrants Population Dynamic Monitoring Survey in 2014. Our findings show that the homeownership gap between rural–urban migrants and urban–urban migrants vary by income, and this gap is larger for high-income groups than for low-income groups. The estimations also demonstrate that social security insurance may act as the transmission channel, indicating a stratification process.

Previous studies have not adequately articulated the intergenerational differences in social identity of rural–urban migrants in China. Using survey data from Wuhan, China, the study tests three hypotheses on intergenerational differences in rural–urban migrants’ social identity based on first-generation and new-generation migrants’ attitudes toward rural and urban society. Results suggest that first-generation migrants are more likely to view themselves as rural rather than urban citizens. However, new-generation migrants tend to regard themselves as neither peasants nor urban citizens, which means that their identity reconstruction is at a stalled status. The identity perplexity of new-generation migrants suggests that they may be in danger of falling into the second-generation decline because there is a mismatch between their aspirations and the practical situation of their identity integration. This article highlights that when analyzing rural–urban migrants’ social identity, it is very important to consider the role of generation and rural–urban migrants’ attitudes toward their background society. Furthermore, the study suggests that in a rural–urban dichotomized society without institutional and social support, rural–urban migrants’ identity integration will not be achieved. Therefore, the Chinese government needs to build an institutionally and socially inclusive society.

The hukou system has long been regarded as the root cause of social exclusion of rural–urban migrants in China, so the abolition of this system is considered the best way to bridge the rural–urban division. This article empirically analyses the extent of social exclusion of rural–urban migrants in a transitional period from three dimensions: geographical, opportunity and psychological. It argues that the hukou status is playing a declining role in the social exclusion of rural–urban migrants, and the market competition appears to play a more important role in social exclusion. This article suggests taking a ‘beyond hukou’ perspective to re-examine the social exclusion of rural–urban migrants in urban China.

The main purpose of this article is to explore the important issues and the role of illegal private clinics in health services access among rural–urban migrants in China. The function that illegal private clinics substantially play on the health among rural–urban migrants in China is rarely discussed in studies. A study on a migrant community in Beijing shows the disadvantaged status of health services choices and the constraints for access to health services among migrants. It argues that the existence of illegal private clinics provides a channel to migrants for medical services in the city and reflects the difficulties and high cost of providing medical services to migrants in urban public hospitals. Occasionally the illegal private clinics can cause danger to the health of migrants.

Since the late 1980s, massive rural - urban migration in China has attracted considerable attention from economists and policymakers, both within and outside China. One of the most striking features of rural - urban migration is that job attainment among the migrants differs considerably between males and females. It is of great interest to know the reasons for this difference and, more importantly, whether gender occupational segregation has a large impact on the gender wage differential among migrants. This paper examines these issues using data on 1504 migrants collected in Jinan city, Shandong province. It is found that gender occupational segregation in this sector is mainly due to the unequal treatment of male and female attributes in occupational assignment and that this contributes very significantly to the gender wage differential among migrants. A comparison with another study on China's rural industrial labour market is made, which suggest that intra-occupational gender wage discrimination is lower in the labour market for rural - urban migrants than in the labour market in the rural industrial sector.

This paper uses the 2011 China Household Finance Survey data to estimate the effect of change in housing value on homeowners' labor force participation. Using the average housing capital gains of other homes in the same community as an instrument for the housing capital gains of a given household, we find that a 100 thousand yuan increase in housing value leads to a 1.37 percentage point decrease in female homeowners' probability of participating in the labor force and a 1.49 percentage point increase in their probability of becoming housewives. We find little effect on men's labor force participation.

This paper uses the 2011 China Household Finance Survey data to estimate the effect of change in housing value on homeowners' labor force participation. Using the average housing capital gains of other homes in the same community as an instrument for the housing capital gains of a given household, we find that a 100 thousand yuan increase in housing value leads to a 1.37 percentage point decrease in female homeowners' probability of participating in the labor force and a 1.49 percentage point increase in their probability of becoming housewives. We find little effect on men's labor force participation.

The effect of housing wealth on labor force participation: Evidence from China

This study goes beyond housing ownership and investigates how housing size, quality, and location affect the mental health of rural migrants in urban China. By using the RUMiC data, the results show that in addition to housing ownership, living space and housing quality are also significantly associated with the mental health of rural migrants. Moreover, with an increase in living space, the mental health of rural migrants who live in private rental housing tends to improve significantly slower than rural migrants who live in dormitories. Furthermore, housing quality and housing location do not moderate the effect of housing ownership on the mental health of rural migrants. This study highlights that it is important to go beyond homeownership and pay more attention to other attributes of housing when studying the mental health of rural migrants. Particularly, this study underscores that improving housing quality is an effective way to improve the mental health of rural migrants in urban China.