Heterogeneity of Internal Migrant Household Consumption in Host Cities: A Comparison of Skilled Migrants and Labor Migrants in China

Abstract

Improvements in migrant families’ consumption are crucial to economic development after the economic crisis. With China’s participation in economic globalization, industrial transformation and college enrolment expansion, a new type of migrant worker has emerged, skilled migrants, who have attained a college diploma or above and whose consumption behaviors differ from traditional labor migrants because education helps to improve the income and consumption structure. This study uses comparative analysis and Tobit model to examine differences in income and consumption patterns, and determinants of consumption between skilled migrant and labor migrant households. Education helps to increase income and alter consumption behaviors. The income and consumption levels of skilled migrant households are significantly higher than the levels of labor migrant households, and the propensity to consume among skilled migrant households is higher than among labor migrant households. Moreover, the consumption structure of skilled migrant households is more advanced than that of labor migrant households. Education indirectly influences consumption by influencing economic, familial, individual, settlement intention, and social security factors. These factors have different effects on skilled migrant and labor migrant household consumption. Authorities should improve the education level and social welfare system to cover migrant households, especially for low-income labor migrants, to improve their consumption.

The impact of basic public services on residents’ consumption in China

“…The upgrading of industrial structure affects the urban–rural consumption gap through three channels: factor allocation effect, output effect and consumption demonstration effect. On the one hand, upgrading the industrial structure can promote economic growth, which helps to increase the non-agricultural employment of rural residents, thus improving the income level of rural residents, thereby expanding farmers’ consumption expenditure and narrowing the urban–rural consumption gap (Zhou et al, 2020 ). On the other hand, the upgrading of the industrial structure has expanded the production capacity of enterprises and the scale of consumer goods production, enabling rural residents to buy more kinds of consumer goods, which has played a leading role in rural residents’ consumption and helped to narrow the urban–rural consumption gap.…”

On the Settlement of the Floating Population in the Pearl River Delta: Understanding the Factors of Permanent Settlement Intention versus Housing Purchase Actions

“…These groups are used to city life and decide against returning to their hometowns, which exacerbates the problem of incomplete citizenization. In this context, the citizenization of colleges graduates has attracted increasing attention from academia and the government [65,66].…”

Migration and Consumption

“…Despite the richness of the contributions to the immigrants' food choices in the nutrition and medicine literature, which mainly focused on the adoption process of more Western behaviors, less is known about the effects of food choices and taste preferences that include ethnicity as a socio-demographic factor. Recently, Zhou et al (2020) using comparative analysis and the Tobit model, investigates the heterogeneity of internal migrants' consumption in China, comparing skilled and labor migrants. The authors point out the decisive role of education in shaping consumption.…”