Wage differentials between urban and rural-urban migrant workers in China

Zhang, Li; Sharpe, Rhonda Vonshay; Li, Shi; Darity, William A.

doi:10.1016/j.chieco.2016.10.004

Cited by 67 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…In furtherance of the findings of Chen et al [60], non-administrative barriers to rural out-migration have been revealed, particularly, the disparities in the level of education, healthcare, and social welfare between rural and urban areas. The findings of the study are also in line with Zhang et al [86], who identified the differences in educational attainment, work experience, distribution across the industry, and occupation as the major causes of the wage gap between rural and urban workers.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

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Sustainable Rural Development in Northern China: Caught in a Vice between Poverty, Urban Attractions, and Migration

2018

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For a long time, the majority of China, which has the world's largest population, has been immobile and lived in rural areas. However, over recent decades, with the economic rise of China, rural labor has demonstrated a trend of moving to rapidly industrializing regions in search of higher income and better employment opportunities. Along with the labor cutback, out-migration introduces negatives to the sustainable development of rural areas, i.e., depopulation, the abandonment of rural settlements and agricultural lands, and the aging of the population, among others. Due to the threats of labor outflow to sustainability, studying the causes of China's rural out-migration can reveal lessons on how state policies can be designed to reduce the negative impacts of out-migration on rural communities. The purpose of this paper is to identify the major causes of migration movements among the rural areas of northern China that are considered to be the best-performing among the provinces of the country in terms of rural development, agricultural production, and the wealth of rural dwellers. A two-stage survey of a panel of experts involved: (1) respondents representing government officials and universities of the Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning provinces and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and (2) regional and district levels of administration, and research and public establishments of Heilongjiang Province. In stage three, drawing on the authors' own survey of 128 rural households in three counties of Heilongjiang Province, the major migration drivers have been identified, and the portfolio of a typical rural migrant has been developed. Some of the key findings are that migration intentions are fueled by the rural-urban income gap, poverty, a reduction of demand for labor in rural areas, underdeveloped infrastructure, the low quality of social services in rural settlements, and the low social standing of rural dwellers. The approach allows monitoring the dynamics of migration attitudes as responses to the policy interventions that are aimed at the sustainable development of rural areas.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Migrants only earn about 50% of urban workers' income. In many cases, such a wage gap is explained by labor market discrimination against rural migrants [86]. In relation to particular provinces, annual average per capita income varies from 20,000 CNY in eastern provinces to only 7000 CNY in central and western provinces of China (Figure 3).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Rural Development in Northern China: Caught in a Vice between Poverty, Urban Attractions, and Migration

2018

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“…In that case, some countries such as China where migrant workers account for a significant proportion of construction workers, measuring the impact of migrant workers on TFP should be specially marked. Due to hukou (household registration) system, China has a large number of migrant workers (known as Nongmingong in China) making up the majority of the labor force [30,31], while the construction industry, besides manufacturing, has long been the largest industry to offer employment opportunities for this group [32,33]. The national survey organized by the Chinese Bureau of Statistics [34] reported that more than 80% workers (54 million) employed in construction were migrant workers in 2017.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Migrant Workers on Total Factor Productivity in Chinese Construction Industry

Wang

Zhang

et al. 2019

Sustainability

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Total factor productivity (TFP) is of critical importance to the sustainable development of construction industry. This paper presents an analysis on the impact of migrant workers on TFP in Chinese construction sector. Interestingly, Solow Residual Approach is applied to conduct the analysis through comparing two scenarios, namely the scenario without considering migrant workers (Scenario A) and the scenario with including migrant workers (Scenario B). The data are collected from the China Statistical Yearbook on Construction and Chinese Annual Report on Migrant Workers for the period of 2008–2015. The results indicate that migrant workers have a significant impact on TFP, during the surveyed period they improved TFP by 10.42% in total and promoted the annual average TFP growth by 0.96%. Hence, it can be seen that the impact of migrant workers on TFP is very significant, whilst the main reason for such impact is believed to be the improvement of migrant workers’ quality obtained mainly throughout learning by doing.

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“…Given that the CHIP survey is representative for the entire population to some extent, the development might indicate longer migration stays in cities. By investigating the 2007 wave, Zhang, Sharpe, Li and Darity (2016) argued that differences in educational attainment, work experience and the distribution with respect to industry, occupation and ownership of firms account for most of the wage differential between urbans and migrants.…”

Section: Wage Regressions For Urban Households and Migrantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Hukou Impact on the Chinese Wage Structure

Dreger

Zhang

2017

SSRN Journal

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Faster urbanization plays a key role in the Chinese economic transformation. However, at the Lewis turning point, the hukou institution constitutes a serious risk to the process, as it restricts the access of migrants to public services offered by cities. To attract further migration, firms started to accept a premium on top of the wage. Thus, the social discrimination introduced by the hukou system is partially compensated by the reactions of market participants, as migrant workers receive additional pay. Based on huge cross sections of private households, this paper provides insights into the size and the evolution of the wage premium. After controlling for standard wage determinants, such as sex, education, experience and ownership of firms, we find that the premium amounts to 7 percent of the hourly wage. Because of the premium, the share of non-wage labor costs is on the rise, especially for low-skilled migrants. To avoid further distortions and reduce inefficiencies, the hukou status should be unified. Migrants should obtain urban hukou as long as they live in cities. They should keep their land use rights when they are in the rural areas. Otherwise, the system could constitute a significant barrier for further urbanization. The removal of institutional bias could restore the link between wages and productivity and improve the allocation of labor.

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Wage differentials between urban and rural-urban migrant workers in China

Cited by 67 publications

References 23 publications

Sustainable Rural Development in Northern China: Caught in a Vice between Poverty, Urban Attractions, and Migration

Sustainable Rural Development in Northern China: Caught in a Vice between Poverty, Urban Attractions, and Migration

Impact of Migrant Workers on Total Factor Productivity in Chinese Construction Industry

The Hukou Impact on the Chinese Wage Structure

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