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Joint migration decisions of married couples in rural China

Author

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  • Meng, Lei
  • Zhao, Min Qiang
  • Liwu, Dewi Silvany

Abstract

In this paper we investigate whether it is empirically important to take into account the joint migration behavior of couples when examining married individuals' migration decisions in rural China. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China (2011), more than half of rural migrant workers are married. Married couples' migration decisions are not purely individual responses to different social and economic opportunities, but jointly determined within a family unit. The current approaches that examine Chinese migration issues do not explicitly take into account the fundamental differences between personal and family decisions. We extend the current approaches to explicitly model joint migration decisions of married couples. Using the 2009 China data from the Rural–Urban Migration in China and Indonesia (RUMiCI) project, we examine the important determinants of couples' temporary migration decisions, such as the numbers of pre-school and school-age children. Our simulation and estimation results show that when analyzing married persons' migration choices, it is more desirable to use a multiple-choice model than a binary-choice model because 1) it more effectively deals with nonlinearities created by joint decision-making; and 2) it offers the possibility to study compositional change of joint migration outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Meng, Lei & Zhao, Min Qiang & Liwu, Dewi Silvany, 2016. "Joint migration decisions of married couples in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 285-305.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:38:y:2016:i:c:p:285-305
    DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2014.05.015
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    Cited by:

    1. Yanan Li & Chan Xiong & Zhe Zhu & Qiaowen Lin, 2021. "Family Migration and Social Integration of Migrants: Evidence from Wuhan Metropolitan Area, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-21, December.
    2. Chong Lu, 2022. "The effect of migration on rural residents’ intergenerational subjective social status mobility in China," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 3279-3308, October.
    3. Wang, Chunchao & Zhang, Chenglei & Ni, Jinlan & Zhang, Haifeng & Zhang, Junsen, 2019. "Family migration in China: Do migrant children affect parental settlement intention?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 416-428.
    4. Sihong Xiong & Ya Wu & Shihai Wu & Fang Chen & Jianzhong Yan, 2020. "Determinants of migration decision-making for rural households: a case study in Chongqing, China," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 104(2), pages 1623-1639, November.
    5. Jing Peng & Yanhong Liu & Qi Wang & Guoping Tu & Xinjian Huang, 2021. "The Impact of New Urbanization Policy on In Situ Urbanization—Policy Test Based on Difference-in-Differences Model," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-16, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Rural-urban migration; Family decisions; Marriage;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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