Does labor mobility follow the inter-regional transfer of labor-intensive manufacturing? The spatial choices of China's migrant workers

Abstract

There is a close interactive relationship between industrial transfer and labor mobility. Previous studies on China roughly determined whether industrial transfer and labor mobility are evolved in the same direction according to macro data, paying less attention to the analysis of mechanisms and heterogeneity. Based on the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Database and China Migrants Dynamic Survey, this study is the first to match data on the individual spatial selection of migrant workers with those on urban labor-intensive manufacturing transfer, use a logistic model to discuss the effects of industrial transfer on labor mobility, and reveal the heterogeneity of cities with different economic locations, as well as the heterogeneity of migrants with different educational backgrounds. The regression results show that overall, with the increase in industrial transfer-outs, the inflow probability of migrant workers increases, and decreases with the increase in industrial transfer-ins. Nevertheless, there is a significant difference in the impact of labor-intensive manufacturing transfer on the choice of labor inflows between the central and the peripheral cities of urban agglomerations, as well as other cities outside an urban agglomeration. Highly educated migrant workers are not significantly affected by labor-intensive manufacturing transfer-ins. These findings are helpful for the relevant decision making.