Relative concerns of rural-to-urban migrants in China

Abstract

As their environment changes, migrants constitute an interesting group to study the e¤ect of relative income on subjective well-being. This paper focuses on the huge population of rural-to-urban migrants in China. Using a novel dataset, we …nd that the well-being of migrants depends on several reference groups: it is negatively a¤ected by the income of other migrants and workers of home regions; in contrast, we identify a positive, 'signal' e¤ect vis-à-vis urban workers: larger urban incomes indicate higher income prospects for the migrants. These e¤ects are particularly strong for migrants who wish to settle permanently, decline with years since migrations and change with other characteristics including work conditions and community ties.

Subjective Well-Being and Its Association with Subjective Health Status, Age, Sex, Region, and Socio-economic Characteristics in a Chinese Population Study

“…We were unable to include this group in the present study. However, some studies have investigated SWB among inner-immigrants in China (Akay et al 2012;Jiang et al 2012;Knight and Gunatilaka 2010b;Nielsen et al 2009). These studies have found that SWB among the innerimmigrants was not only worse than that among other urban residents but also worse than that among rural residents.…”

“…These studies have found that SWB among the innerimmigrants was not only worse than that among other urban residents but also worse than that among rural residents. This could reflect their low income in comparison to other urban residents (Akay et al 2012;Jiang et al 2012) and a broader reference group compared to rural residents (Akay et al 2012;Knight and Gunatilaka 2010a).…”

Remittances and relative concerns in rural China

“…In order to measure SWB, we constructed an index based on the 12 mental health questions contained in the RUMiC's General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). 6 The literature has widely employed the GHQ-12 index (see e.g., Oswald, 1994, 2002;Akay et al, 2012Akay et al, , 2013. Each question allows responses with scores between 0 (high levels) and 3 (low levels).…”

“…The effect of relative concerns has been analyzed using SWB data from existing surveys (e.g., Ferrer-i-Carbonell, 2005;Clark et al, 2008) or by collecting survey experimental data (e.g., Solnick and Hemenway, 1998;Carlsson et al, 2007;Akay et al, 2012). 1 Both approaches suggest that the relative income substantially affects individuals' utility.…”

“…This method allows for identifying positional concerns both for income and consumption of specific goods, such as cars and holidays (see, e.g., Alpizar et al, 2005;Carlsson et al, 2007;Hemenway, 1998, 2005;Akay et al, , 2013. 3 sometimes positive impact from relative concerns (see for South Africa: Kingdon and Knight, 2007;Bookwalter and Dalenberg, 2009;Ethiopia: Akay and Martinsson, 2011;China: Appleton and Song, 2008;Knight et al, 2009;Knight and Gunatilaka, 2010;Akay et al, 2012;Poland: Senik 2004Russia: Ravillion and Lokshin, 2000). 2 One possible explanation of the positive effect is the presence of altruistic feelings towards other members with which the individual interacts in, e.g., the local community.…”