Urban Hukou Research Articles

Attraction or repulsion? The creation of civilized cities and the resident intention of migrants

Using the National Civilized City Award campaign as a quasi-natural experiment, we evaluate the effect of establishing civilized cities in China on migrants' residence intention and explore its mechanism. Based on the data from the China Migrants Dynamic Survey for 2012–17 and propensity score matching and difference-in-difference approach, creating civilized cities reduced migrants' residence intention. The mechanism shows that creating civilized cities brought higher amenities while decreasing income and increasing housing costs. This effect showed individual and city heterogeneity: low-skilled and rural hukou migrants' residence intention was significantly reduced, while high-skilled and urban hukou migrants experienced no significant impact; large and midwestern cities experienced reduced attractiveness for migrants compared with small, medium-sized, and eastern cities. We show how cities affect individuals' residence intention and provide empirical evidence for the reasonable and effective formulation of urban management policies.

Digitalization in China: who’s left behind?

ABSTRACT In an age of digitalization, who still refuses to use digital technology? Drawing on nationally-representative Chinese General Social Survey data, this article finds that about half of Chinese households do not actively use the Internet or e-payment systems, despite their ubiquity. This article estimates the effects of socioeconomic resources on these technologies’ (non-)use across urban, resident but previously urban, resident but previously rural, and rural hukou household registrations in China. Educational attainment is associated with higher odds of use among rural hukou, but the size of this effect is nearly double compared to urban hukou. Additionally, being female increases the odds of use among urban and resident but previously urban hukou, and lowers the odds of use in rural hukou, but which are attenuated by the mediating effects of education. The results give credence to education as a direct and indirect mechanism for digital skills development, especially for rural households. Individuals proximal to rural living conditions have fewer opportunities to learn about digital technology, resulting in greater dependency on education as a rare source of skills training. Simultaneously, education indirectly creates opportunities for women to learn digital skills by improving chances for higher-status job participation that require information management skills, especially in rural regions where traditional cultural norms constrain opportunities for upward mobility. Ultimately, digital technology non-use is traced not to lack of interest, but to lack of skills development opportunities among the socioeconomically disadvantaged.

China's urban poor – Comparing twice poverty between residents and migrants in 2013 and 2018

Using data from the China Household Income Project in 2013 and 2018, this paper studies relative poverty among rural hukou holders living in urban China and urban hukou holders. People living in households with an income below a fixed percent of the median per-capita income and wealth below the same fixed percent of the median per-capita wealth among urban residents are deemed as relative poor. Although migrants with rural hukou living in urban China were more prone to twice poverty than urban residents in 2013, this was not generally the case in 2018.A multivariate analysis shows several factors to be related to the probability of being twice relative poor. Even considering these factors, a rural hukou status increased the probability of being twice relative poor in 2013. In contrast, such an excess risk of being twice relative poor was much lesser outspoken in middle and low-ranking cities in 2018. However, rural to urban migrants living in high-ranking cities had a somewhat higher risk of being relative poor than urban residents with the same characteristics in 2018.

Employability skills: developing an employability scale and the relationship with socioeconomic status indicators

PurposeThis paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.Design/methodology/approachThis briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.FindingsAdolescents with parents who attain higher education levels, have highly skilled jobs, come from affluent families and have urban hukou are more likely to have higher employability skills than those with lower SES backgrounds. They also tend to improve their employability skills than those without these characteristics.Originality/valueThe briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The effects of exposure to high temperatures during pregnancy on adolescent mental health: Evidence from China

This paper provides the first study to explore the relationship between exposure to ambient temperatures during pregnancy and adolescent mental health in China. The results show that experiencing one more hot day relative to local historical contemporaneous average values during pregnancy significantly increases the likelihood of mental health disorders in adolescence. The impact is larger in the first and second trimesters. Individuals born in the northern region and whose mothers work in agriculture are more vulnerable to high temperatures. Prenatal exposure to hot days is more harmful to the mental health of older adolescents. Additionally, the adverse effects are similar for both men and women and individuals with rural and urban hukou. Biological effects, income effects, and human capital accumulation might be three operative channels of the impact. These findings add to the evidence on the lasting health effects of early life exposure to climatic shocks and call for policy interventions during pregnancy.

The Impact of Household Registration Restrictions and the Integration Reform on Urban-Rural Disposable Income Disparity in China

This thesis studies the effects of the restrictions on the agriculture and non-agriculture household registration system often called urban and rural hukou, and its abolition on the disposable income disparity between urban and rural areas in China. This thesis uses the difference between the non-agriculture hukou and urbanization rates to measure the hukou limitation and its impact on income disparity in urban and rural areas. As for the integration reform, the study uses a dummy variable about before and after the integration reform and a dummy variable with additional regression specification of year to estimate the impact of such dichotomy on the income gap among Eastern, Western, and Central China. The results suggest that the stronger the hukou limitation, the more significant the income inequality between urban and rural areas, but the results are not valid in Eastern developed regions. The dual-track system has a more substantial impact on increasing the income gap in economically underdeveloped Western China. However, the thesis suggests that the integration reform cannot significantly diminish the income disparity between cities and the countryside. To see the complete thesis, please visit https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/d217qq90r.

Precautionary savings and rural‐to‐urban migration: Evidence from Chinese hukou status

AbstractRural‐to‐urban migrants account for more than one‐third of the total population in China. However, because of China's hukou system, urban migrants can have limited access to different public services in urban areas. Consequently, this can affect their consumption and savings behaviour. However, little is known about how the hukou system changes migrants' allocation of savings across different savings instruments. In this study, we utilize the 2013 round of the Urban and Rural Residents Income Distribution and Living Conditions Survey of China to see if migrants' hukou status affects allocation between short‐term and long‐term assets. Propensity score matching is used to match migrants with migrants who have obtained urban hukou. When comparing the urban migrants having rural hukou with hukou holders who converted their hukou from rural to urban, we find that the migrants hold significantly higher proportions of savings in cash and other short‐term assets. Those who have obtained urban hukou, appear to hold a greater share of their portfolio in long‐term, higher returning assets. The differences in portfolio allocations appear to be larger for migrants with lower household income. We argue that these results are consistent with savings behaviour driven by a precautionary motive.

Unlocking Opportunities for Migrant Workers in China: Analyzing the Impact of Health Insurance on Hukou Switching Intentions

The Chinese urban–rural binary health insurance structure has contributed to a significant urban–rural segmentation and regional fragmentation, which will affect labor mobilization and urbanization. The purpose of this research is to study whether and how urban–rural binary health insurance impacts the intentions of migrant workers to switch between rural and urban hukou. Pooled data were drawn from China Migrants Dynamic Survey, collected by the National Health Commission of China. The study applied the instrument variable model due to the existence of the endogeneity; and the IVprobit model to conduct the empirical analysis. Our findings are as follows: (1) the urban–rural binary health insurance affects migrant workers’ intentions to switch to urban hukou significantly. (2) The negative impact of originally rural health insurance on migrant workers’ intention of switching to urban hukou is relatively large for low-education-level migrant workers. (3) Compared with new generation of migrant workers, old migrant workers have higher health insurance dependency levels. Finally, our research suggested several policy implications, such as accelerating the establishment of a unified urban–rural health insurance system, increasing the urban health insurance participation rate of migrant workers in their working cities, and including migrant workers in the scope of equal access to urban public services, etc. All the policy suggestions are essential in order to accelerate the citizenization of migrant workers, improve the quality of urbanization, and promote the construction of a unified national labor market.

Diverging destinies: changing trends of induced abortion in China

In the era of the second demographic transition, “diverging destinies” theory states that women with the most economic opportunities often obtain gains while women with the least economic opportunities suffer from losses. Using nationally representative data from the 2017 China Fertility Survey, we attempted to examine if diverging destinies theory can explain differences in the incidence of induced abortion among women with differing economic opportunities. We found that women with good economic opportunities (i.e., well-educated and holding urban hukou) were more likely to have induced abortions between 1980 and 2010 and less likely to do so between 2015 and 2017. Moreover, younger cohorts were far more likely to have induced abortions at a younger age and before marriage. These findings provide supportive evidence for diverging destinies in induced abortion scenarios in China. We thus advocate that sexual and reproductive health policy making shows an overarching concern for the interests of disadvantaged groups.

Hukou transfer intention of rural migrants with settlement intention in China: How cities’ administrative level matters

This paper is the first to investigate the role of China's top-down model captured by cities' administrative level in the hukou transfer intention of rural migrants with settlement intention. We develop a conceptual framework and attribute rural migrants' decision on hukou transfer to a comprehensive evaluation of the benefit, risk, and opportunity. Using a Multilevel Logistic Regression, the empirical study uncovers that the impact of cities' administrative level comprises direct effect and moderating effect. The direct effect highlights the benefit of hukou transfer, through which cities' administrative level positively affects rural migrants' hukou transfer intention. The moderating effect underlines both the benefit and risk of obtaining urban local hukou, through which cities' administrative level shapes the relationship between marital status/migration type/arable land/homestead/household income and hukou transfer intention. Our work offers an international insight into rural migrants' settlement by revealing the role of cities' political system in shaping the stratification of the distribution of permanent migrants at the city level. It also contributes to the knowledge of the neoclassical perspective in migration studies by considering rural migrants' long-term cost-benefit balance on settlement.

Changes in migration determinants along the urban hierarchy in China

ABSTRACT This paper examines trends of internal migration in China across two decades, with a focus on changes in socio-demographic predictors of origin-destination patterns. We use four microdata samples of the China decennial census and minicensus. After introducing a description of overall internal migration trends and providing a discussion of the utility of the urban hierarchy framework, we proceed with a two-step statistical approach. We look first descriptively at interprovincial bilateral migration flows. We then turn to a multivariate analysis of outmigration and destination selection as a function of age, sex, educational attainment and hukou status. Our results reveal the differential attractiveness of origins (for retention) and destinations by demographic characteristics and position within the urban hierarchy, and also indicate shifts in the strength of predictors over time. Greater educational attainment and urban hukou strongly favour the selection of a destination within the top levels of the urban hierarchy. Over time, selectivity by gender weakens. Although urban hukou and schooling become slightly less powerful predictors of interprovincial migration, attractiveness of top-tier destinations increases once individual demographic characteristics are controlled.

Rural–urban migration and urban identity differentiation in China

ABSTRACT Previous studies on the social identity of rural-urban migrants in China have often neglected the fact that migration is highly selective. Consequently, the findings generally suffer from survival bias. To overcome this problem, we construct an analytical framework to differentiate six subgroups: rural residents with no migration experience, returned migrants, rural-urban migrants, new urban residents through elite approaches, new urban residents through policy dividends, and urban natives. Employing logistic regression, propensity score matching, and propensity score-based marginal mean weighting through stratification, this study analyzes the 2013 Chinese General Social Survey data and confirms that the urban identity of rural residents, rural-urban migrants, new urban residents, and urban natives changed from weak to strong. The sources of urban identity can be ascribed to three aspects: urban experience, hukou conversion, and generational replacement, among which hukou conversion is the most important. The findings indicate that incorporating rural-urban migrants whose identity status may have changed into the analysis helps overcome the problem of survival bias. This method can be further used to reveal other issues related to rural-urban migration in urbanizing China. Moreover, theories concerning international migrants in western countries should be critically appraised before being applied to explain the social integration of internal migrants in different social contexts.

Randomised Controlled Trial of Self-Affirmation Intervention on Students' Academic Performance: Promising Impacts on Students from Migrant Hukou Status.

Drawing from the sociocultural-self model, this study aims to examine the influence of self-affirmation on the academic outcomes of lower-class migrant students, as well as the psychological mechanism underlying this phenomenon. A field experiment was conducted at a comprehensive secondary school in the southern region of China. Our study sample comprised 1534 immigrant students from diverse regions across the country, with an average proportion of 59.6% of students registered with a rural hukou. The hukou system plays a pivotal role in measuring social class in China, thus it was used as a proxy for lower and higher social class, with rural hukou students considered to be lower-class and urban hukou students considered to be higher-class. Prior to the English test, students in the self-affirmed group were engaged in a brief writing exercise that focused on their core values, whereas the control group wrote about a neutral topic. The primary outcome of interest was the effect of self-affirmation on English test scores, whereas the secondary outcome was the students' survey stereotype threat. The results exhibit that self-affirmation more significantly improved the English test performance of lower-class students compared to higher-class students, and this positive effect was mediated by reducing stereotype threat. Our findings unravel the impact of self-affirmation on the academic performance of migrant students from different social classes and signify the mediating role of stereotype threat in this process. The present study extends previous findings to students from immigrant families in the Chinese cultural context, and these findings demonstrate that self-affirmation can constitute a promising intervention for stereotype threat and achievement gaps due to social class differences in immigrant family groups. Considering that this intervention takes only about 15 minutes of time, entails almost zero cost, does no harm, and that it focuses on disadvantaged immigrant students, it may provide valuable insights for educational policies to be implemented in a new type of migrant city such as Shenzhen.

Does the transition to grandparenthood influence the health and well-being of older people? Evidence from the CHARLS study in China

ObjectivesThe birth of a new grandchild may lead to role enhancement, positively affecting the wellbeing of grandparents. It may also lead to role overload and role conflict, resulting in negative effects. We examine how the transition to grandparenthood influences the health and well-being of older people in China. MethodsEmploying longitudinal data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, we estimate individual fixed-effects models to examine the impact of transitioning to grandparenthood on functional limitations, life satisfaction and depression. ResultsTransitioning to grandmotherhood was associated with a higher probability of reporting one or more functional limitations of daily living, but transitioning to grandparenthood was associated with higher life satisfaction. Effects were similar for grandparents with a rural or urban hukou status. DiscussionFindings suggest that the combination of role enhancement and role strain may generate mixed impacts of transitioning to grandparenthood on older adults’ health and well-being.

Parental socioeconomic status and the transition to adulthood in China: evidence from a holistic approach

ABSTRACT This study used retrospective data to examine the patterns of trajectories to adulthood among Chinese young people born between 1930 and 1979 and the role of parental socioeconomic status in their transition to adulthood. We found that trajectories to adulthood can be classified into four patterns: early transition, intermediate transition, late transition, and diversified transition. Adolescents with highly educated fathers were less likely to follow the traditional trajectories of an early transition to adulthood. Meanwhile, adolescents with fathers with lower occupational statuses were more likely to transition to adulthood before their peers. However, delayed and diverse trajectories to adulthood were observed regardless of the adolescents’ mothers’ occupational statuses. Fathers’ non-party membership and rural hukou played an important role in accelerating Chinese youths’ transition to adulthood and increased the likelihood of this transition following the traditional pathway. Conversely, mothers’ party membership and urban hukou delayed adolescents’ transition to adulthood. In sum, young people with parents with low socioeconomic statuses were more likely to transition to adulthood relatively quickly, while those with parents with higher socioeconomic statuses were more likely to delay this transition.

CUMULATIVE (DIS)ADVANTAGE IN COGNITIVE HEALTH: RURAL/URBAN RESIDENCY, HUKOU, AND COGNITIVE AGING IN OLDER CHINESE

Abstract Urban residency benefits cognition in later life. In China, the household registration system (hukou) creates another place-based advantage/disadvantage for cognitive aging. We exam the interplay of rural/urban residence and hukou across the life-course in creating cumulative advantage/disadvantage in cognitive aging trajectories using longitudinal data from the 2011-2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study and its Life History Survey. Results from linear mixed effect models show that always urban dwellers with urban hukou exhibited the highest level of cognitive function and the slowest decline, and the always rural dwellers with rural hukou had the worst cognitive function and experienced a faster decline. Rural-to-urban shifts had better cognitive health than always rural dwellers, but the advantages depend on urban hukou attainment and specific mechanisms. This research suggests cumulative advantage/disadvantage in cognitive aging by residence and hukou throughout life and demonstrates that institutional discrimination and exclusionary policy may create inequality in aging processes.

Functional Limitations and Psychological Well-Being Among Older Adults in China: The Critical Role of Hukou as a Stratifying Factor.

Based on a stress process perspective, this study examines how the hukou system and gender intersect to shape the relationship between functional limitations and psychological well-being in older adults. Using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (N = 17,708 at baseline), analyses are carried out with random- and fixed-effects models. Analyses show that an urban hukou benefits the psychological well-being of Chinese older adults by weakening the relationship between functional limitations and depression, and these differences do not vary significantly between men and women. The relationship between functional limitations and life satisfaction does not differ by hukou region. This study shows that China's household registration system provides an important context for the associations between functional limitations and psychological well-being in later life. The hukou system is an important stratifying agent and should be taken into account in the study of stress and aging in a Chinese context.

Hukou Reform and the “Luohu” of Rural Migrants in Urban China

Along with a series of reforms of the household registration, or the hukou system, there has been a sustained call for its reforms to further integrate rural migrants into cities and sustain the national strategy of urbanization. Nevertheless, does hukou still matter? Is it still a major obstacle to the inclusive development of post-reform urban China? Recently, the effect of the hukou system and its reforms has become a debatable topic. To address the question, in this article, we examine the “luohu” of rural migrants, i.e., rural people who work and/or live in the city obtaining urban hukou, to evaluate the effects of hukou reforms. We argue, along with the improvement of China’s social security system in both urban and rural areas, as well as the increased rights of rural migrants in cities, that the gap between the “value” of urban and rural hukou is decreasing: the boundaries set between urban and rural territories have been diminished; meanwhile, the intentions of rural migrants to luohu in the city have declined. This dilemma indicates that the impact of hukou system per se is fading, which is closely linked to the reforms of other social policies such as welfare and pension systems. As such, to promote the integration of rural migrants in Chinese cities, the focus of China’s hukou reforms should shift from the registration system to more inclusive social policies.

Employability skills of the next generation of Chinese factory workers

PurposeThe main purpose of this study was to develop and test an employability scale in a Chinese context. Moreover, the authors investigated how socioeconomic status indicators (education and occupation of parents, household income and hukou, i.e. household registration location) affect the endowment and development of adolescents' employability skills in China.Design/methodology/approachData were collected via paper-based surveys from 1,146 vocational school students in rural and urban areas in China at two points in time one year apart. The authors developed a scale to measure employability skills in China and conducted general linear modeling to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe findings indicate that adolescents whose parents have more education, highly skilled occupations, relatively affluent household income and urban hukou are more likely to attain higher employability skills than those from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds. Moreover, adolescents with these background characteristics tend to improve their employability skills more than those without such characteristics. This suggests that social capital may further widen the inequality gap among adolescents.Research limitations/implicationsThe framework of employability skills focuses on the general basic transferable employability skills of vocational students. Future studies could develop measures of employability skills for college graduates and widen the measurements of social capital based on the study’s findings. The findings suggest that higher education institutions should be encouraged to integrate resources to improve education inequality between rural and urban regions to the disparity in adolescents' employability skills development.Originality/valueBuilding on Western frameworks, the study defines and develops an employability scale in the Chinese context that can be a practical measurement tool for researchers, educators and policymakers. The authors investigated the endowment and development of employability skills in relation to social capital. Exposure to social capital tends to affect an individual's skills and capability development at an early stage, and in the long term, this calls attention to access to quality education between rural and urban youth.

Effects of Trade Unions on Workers’ Job Satisfaction: Evidence from China

This study investigates the effect of trade unions on workers’ job satisfaction in China, based on panel data analyses that accommodate unobserved heterogeneity and the sorting problems—dissatisfied workers are more likely to be union members, and workplaces with poor working conditions are more likely to result in establishing unions. Based on data from the China Family Panel Studies, econometric models are estimated to evaluate the magnitude of the effect of the dynamic change in union membership status (union membership history) on job satisfaction. The results show that while unions effectively improve members’ job satisfaction and union effects vary by household registration type (urban versus rural hukou), unions fail to impress their members with the benefits they offer. The study offers several policy recommendations for rural hukou workers to benefit from union membership more effectively than they do now.