Reform Of Hukou System Research Articles

Citizenship Redefined: China’s Hukou System Reform and the Status of North Korean Refugee Women and Their Children in China

Citizenship Redefined: China’s Hukou System Reform and the Status of North Korean Refugee Women and Their Children in China

Economic Potential Gain, Income Uncertainty, and Rural Migrants’ Urban Homeownership: Evidence from China

Citizenization of rural migrants is considered as a labeling urbanization goal in developing countries. Homeownership has always been regarded as the most important cornerstone of citizenization for individuals and families in China. Despite the existence of plenty of literature on migrants’ homeownership, some critical influencing factors are still under-investigated. On the basis of the large nation-wide micro data of the China Migrant Dynamic Survey (CMDS), this study investigates the correlations among economic potential gain, income uncertainty, and rural migrants’ homeownership propensity in their host cities. The empirical results suggest that economic potential gain is positively correlated with the likelihood of rural migrants’ homeownership in their host cities, whereas there is negative association between income uncertainty and urban homeownership propensity among rural migrant households. In addition, we found that larger income uncertainty lowers the positive association between economic potential gain and rural migrants’ homeownership propensity in their host cities. Furthermore, the heterogeneity of these correlations across demographic characteristics and regions were investigated. We conclude this paper by making several suggestions, including offering a level playing field for rewarding migrants’ human capital endowment reasonably in terms of income, accelerating the hukou system reform, and eliminating institutional discrimination imposed on rural migrants to increase income stability.

Citizenization of rural migrants in China's new urbanization: The roles of hukou system reform and rural land marketization

Citizenization of rural migrants (CRM) is an important urbanization goal in developing countries. The main factors affecting urbanization are migration policies and rural land tenurial arrangements. However, little evidence has been provided on the effects of relaxing migration restrictions and extending rural land rights bundles on CRM. The relaxation of hukou restrictions and rural land marketization under China's new urbanization plan provide materials for examining the causal effects. The results of this research confirm that the extension of rural land rights bundles to farmers is more important for CRM than the relaxation of migration restrictions in developing countries. They further confirm that the negative effects of rural landholdings on CRM can be neutralised by rural land marketization. Moreover, improving the welfare of citizens in medium and small cities and the competitiveness of rural migrants can strengthen the positive effects of the hukou system reform. The findings suggest that usufruct-based rural land marketization and the recognition of the dual identity of rural migrants are effective measures for advancing urbanization in developing countries. • This paper provides evidences for the effects of migration restrictions relaxation and rural land marketization on CRM. • The positive effects of rural land marketization can neutralize the negative effects of rural landholdings on CRM. • Rural land rights reform is more important for migration than relaxing migration restrictions. • Rural land marketization based on usufruct can help to promote CRM.

Citizenization of Rural Migrants in China's New Urbanization: The Roles of Hukou System Reform and Rural Land Marketization

Citizenization of Rural Migrants in China's New Urbanization: The Roles of Hukou System Reform and Rural Land Marketization

Migration history, hukou status, and urban household consumption

Under China’s household registration system, aka the hukou system, people have urban or rural hukou. Urban hukou generally provides more public service and welfare than rural hukou, and there is a barrier for getting an urban hukou unless one is endowed with urban hukou by birth. From 2014, China speeds up the hukou system reform. Rural-to-urban migrants can change their hukou status to urban through various channels and become the Nong-Zhuan-Fei. Meanwhile, public service covers a broader population than before. Existing literature attributes the suppressed consumption level of migrants to the constraints of the hukou system. However, noninstitutional factors are also crucial in explaining this phenomenon, considering the new laws and regulations of hukou system reform. We use Nong-Zhuan-Fei as a unique benchmark to identify the institutional and noninstitutional effects on household consumption. Urban hukou and its associated institutional restriction make Nong-Zhuan-Fei households consume (per capita) 2.4% more than “comparable” rural homes. The country life experience and consumption habits make both Nong-Zhuan-Fei and rural hukou city residents taking more conspicuous consumptions than native urban households. There is no significant difference in overall expenditures between Nong-Zhuan-Fei and native urban homes, but Nong-Zhuan-Fei households put more weights on conspicuous consumptions than pragmatic consumptions.

China’s hukou system and city economic growth: from the aspect of rural–urban migration

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate the economic impacts of China’s hukou system and propose the possible direction for future reform.Design/methodology/approachThe study develops a framework to incorporate the hukou system into the economic growth model. Using prefecture city-level panel data covering 241 cities over the period 2004–2016 and applying the fixed effects and instrumental variable regression techniques, the authors investigated empirically the impacts of the hukou system on city economic growth.FindingsThe study provides three main findings. First, the city sector conditionally benefits from labour mobility deregulation that allows migrants to work in cities. Second, the hukou system has different impacts on economic growth among cities with different sizes and administrative levels. Third, to offset the costs of providing exclusive public services to the migrants, the big or high-administrative-level cities can use their high-valued hukou to attract the high-skilled migrants, but the small- or low-administrative-level cities do not have this advantage.Practical implicationsThis study suggests that the key for further hukou system reform is how to deal with the hukou–welfare binding relationship.Originality/valueThe authors developed a theoretical framework and conducted an empirical analysis on the direct relationship between the hukou system and economic growth to reveal the mechanism of how does the hukou system influence the city economic growth and answer the question of why is the hukou system reform so hard in China. The framework also sheds some lights on explaining the success and failure of the hukou system reforms in the past 40 years.

Valuing the urban hukou in China: Evidence from a regression discontinuity design for housing prices

This paper explores the demand side of hukou (household registration) acquisition in China by estimating the market valuation of urban hukou. Based on Jinan City’s acquiring the hukousby purchasinghouses policy, this paper uses houses with a floor area slightly larger and slightly smaller than the minimum required as the treatment and control groups, respectively, to implement a regression discontinuity design. The results show that residents’ willingness to pay for urban hukou in Jinan City was approximately 90,000–126,000 yuan in 2017. We also find great heterogeneity in different housing submarkets; the value of hukou is much higher in immigrant-dominated housing markets and top primary school districts. Our findings are robust to parametric and nonparametric estimates and different model specifications. We perform falsification tests by assuming a false policy introduction date and placebo tests based on rental data. Our analysis offers insights for hukou system reform and public services provision.

A Study on Reform of Hukou system in China

A Study on Reform of Hukou system in China

Dual Identity and Prejudice: The Moderating Role of Group Boundary Permeability.

Past work suggested that dual identity was effective to reduce prejudice. This study extended research on dual identity and prejudice by identifying a boundary condition in this relationship, that is, group permeability. In Study 1, we replicated previous studies with Chinese individuals and found that inducing dual identity (emphasizing subgroup differences and a common nation identity), compared to the control condition, decreased the urban residents’ prejudice against rural-to-urban migrants. In Study 2, we manipulated the group boundary permeability using the Hukou system reform, and found that when the group boundary was permeable, dual identity was effective in reducing prejudice against rural-to-urban migrants. However, this effect vanished in the condition where the group boundary was impermeable. These results point to the importance of inducing dual identity under specific conditions for research on decreasing prejudice. Some practical implications of the findings for urbanization and immigration are discussed.

The Effect of Group Boundary Permeability on Intergroup Prejudice: The Case of Rural-to-Urban Migrants in China

The developing world is witness to a major urban transformation. How to facilitate intergroup relations between new migrants and long-time urban residents is a critical issue in developing societies globally. The current research explored the effect of group boundary permeability on intergroup prejudice by the case of rural-to-urban migration in China. As the boundary between rural-to-urban migrants and permanent urban residents in China can be ascribed to China's unique hukou system, we conducted three interrelated studies to approach the topic from the perspective of the hukou system and its reforms. Study 1 used a correlational investigation and found a negative correlation between group boundary permeability and prejudice against rural-to-urban migrants. In Study 2, we manipulated the group boundary permeability using the points accumulation system scheme of the hukou system reform, and found a causal effect of the group boundary permeability on the social distance of urban dwellers to migrants. In Study 3, using a more general hukou reform scheme, that of gradually abolishing the hukou system, we replicated the findings from Study 2 and further found that a permeable group boundary could reduce prejudice. These three studies suggest that the group boundary based on the Chinese hukou system is an institutional cause of prejudice against rural-to-urban migrants. Our experimental manipulations can be interpreted as analogues to potential policy arena actions.