Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Are All Migrants Really Worse Off in Urban Labour Markets? New Empirical Evidence from China

Contents:

Author Info

  • Jason Gagnon
  • Theodora Xenogiani
  • Chunbing Xing

Abstract

The rapid and massive increase of rural-to-urban migration in China has drawn attention to the welfare of migrant workers, particularly to their working conditions and pay. This paper uses data from a random draw of the 2005 Chinese national census survey to investigate discrimination in urban labour markets against rural migrants, by comparing their earnings and the sector (formal vs. informal) they work in with those of urban residents and urban migrants. Exploiting differences in their status in the Chinese residential registration system (hukou) we find no earnings discrimination against rural migrants compared with urban residents, contrary to popular belief. In contrast, it is found that urban migrants in fact gain a large wage premium by migrating. However, both rural and urban migrants are found to be discriminated out of the formal sector, working in informal jobs and lacking adequate social protection. [IZA Discussion Paper No. 6268]. URL:[http://ftp.iza.org/dp6268.pdf]

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://www.esocialsciences.org/Download/repecDownload.aspx?fname=http://ftp.iza.org/dp6268.pdf&fcategory=Articles&AId=4698&fref=repec
Our checks indicate that this address may not be valid because: 403 Forbidden. If this is indeed the case, please notify (Padma Prakash)
Download Restriction: no

Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by eSocialSciences in its series Working Papers with number id:4698.

as in new window
Length:
Date of creation: Jan 2012
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:4698

Note: Institutional Papers
Contact details of provider:
Web page: http://www.esocialsciences.org

Related research

Keywords: Migrants; Urban Labour Markets; China; migration; discrimination; informal employment; Chinese residential registration system; hukou; social protection;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:

References

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
as in new window
  1. Margaret Maurer-Fazio & Ngan Dinh, 2004. "Differential rewards to, and contributions of, education in urban China's segmented labor markets," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(3), pages 173-189, October.
  2. Zheren WU, 2008. "Self-selection and Earnings of Migrants: Evidence from Rural China," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 08-25, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics and Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP).
  3. Lin, Justin Y & Wang, Gewei & Zhao, Yaohui, 2004. "Regional Inequality and Labor Transfers in China," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 52(3), pages 587-603, April.
  4. John Whalley & Shunming Zhang, 2004. "Inequality Change in China and (Hukou) Labour Mobility Restrictions," NBER Working Papers 10683, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  5. Knight, John & Yueh, Linda, 2004. "Job mobility of residents and migrants in urban China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 637-660, December.
  6. Sylvie Démurger & Marc Gurgand & Shi Li & Yue Ximing, 2008. "Migrants as second-class workers in urban China? A decomposition analysis," Post-Print halshs-00269119, HAL.
  7. Gagnon, Jason & Xenogiani, Theodora & Xing, Chunbing, 2009. "Are all migrants really worse off in urban labour markets: new empirical evidence from China," MPRA Paper 16109, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  8. Zhang, Kevin Honglin & Song, Shunfeng, 2003. "Rural-urban migration and urbanization in China: Evidence from time-series and cross-section analyses," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 386-400.
  9. John Knight & Linda Yueh, 2004. "Urban Insiders versus Rural Outsiders: Complementarity or Competition in China`s Urban Labour Market?," Economics Series Working Papers 217, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
  10. Meng, Xin & Miller, Paul, 1995. "Occupational Segregation and Its Impact on Gender Wage Discrimination in China's Rural Industrial Sector," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 47(1), pages 136-55, January.
  11. Meng, Xin & Zhang, Junsen, 2001. "The Two-Tier Labor Market in Urban China: Occupational Segregation and Wage Differentials between Urban Residents and Rural Migrants in Shanghai," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 485-504, September.
  12. Zhong Zhao, 2005. "Migration, Labor Market Flexibility, and Wage Determination in China: A Review," Labor and Demography 0507009, EconWPA.
  13. Knight, John & Li, Shi, 2005. "Wages, firm profitability and labor market segmentation in urban China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 205-228.
  14. repec:pse:psecon:2008-20 is not listed on IDEAS
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

Citations

Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
as in new window

Cited by:
  1. Wenshu Gao & Russell Smyth, 2012. "Returns to Schooling in Urban China, 2001-2010: Evidence from Three Waves of the China Urban Labor Survey," Monash Economics Working Papers 50-12, Monash University, Department of Economics.
  2. Kenn Ariga & Fumio Ohtake & Masaru Sasaki & Zheren Wu, 2012. "Wage growth through job hopping in China," KIER Working Papers 833, Kyoto University, Institute of Economic Research.
  3. Cui, Yuling & Nahm, Daehoon & Tani, Massimiliano, 2012. "The Determinants of Rural Migrants' Employment Choice in China: Results from a Joint Estimation," IZA Discussion Papers 6968, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  4. Corrado Giulietti & Guangjie Ning & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2012. "Self-employment of rural-to-urban migrants in China," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 33(1), pages 96-117, June.
  5. Jason Gagnon & Theodora Xenogiani & Chunbing Xing, 2009. "Are all Migrants Really Worse off in Urban Labour Markets?: New empirical evidence from China," OECD Development Centre Working Papers 278, OECD Publishing.
  6. Cui, Yuling & Nahm, Daehoon & Tani, Massimiliano, 2013. "Self-Employment in China: Are Rural Migrant Workers and Urban Residents Alike?," IZA Discussion Papers 7191, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  7. Fields, Gary & Song, Yang, 2013. "A Theoretical Model of the Chinese Labor Market," IZA Discussion Papers 7278, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:4698

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Padma Prakash).

If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.