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The Unintended Long-Term Consequences of Mao’s Mass Send-Down Movement: Marriage, Social Network, and Happiness

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  • Wang, Shun
  • Zhou, Weina

Abstract

This paper uses the China General Social Survey (CGSS) 2003 to evaluate the long-term consequences of a forced migration, the state’s “send-down” movement (shang shan xia xiang, or up to the mountains, down to the villages) during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, on individuals’ nonmaterial well-being. The send-down program resettled over 16 million urban youths to the countryside to carry out hard manual labor over the years 1968–78. Most of them were allowed to return to urban areas when the Cultural Revolution ended. To estimate the long-term impacts of the send-down experience, we compare the outcomes of individuals with send-down experience to those of individuals without send-down experience but having similar characteristics and family backgrounds during the send-down period. We conduct primarily OLS estimates with a careful sample selection. We find that those who had the send-down experience have worse marriage outcomes, lower-quality social networks, and a lower level of happiness than non-send-downs. The negative effects of the forced migration are robust against regression methods and various model specifications. Our study adds to the growing literature in economics that seeks to evaluate the impact of forced migration.

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  • Wang, Shun & Zhou, Weina, 2017. "The Unintended Long-Term Consequences of Mao’s Mass Send-Down Movement: Marriage, Social Network, and Happiness," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 344-359.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:90:y:2017:i:c:p:344-359
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2016.10.011
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    2. Wang, Haining & Cheng, Zhiming & Zhe Wang, Ben & Chen, Yuanyuan, 2021. "Childhood left-behind experience and labour market outcomes in China," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 196-207.
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    4. Guo, Rufei & Zhang, Junsen & Zhang, Ning, 2022. "How does birth endowment affect individual resilience to an adolescent adversity?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 251-265.
    5. Shuchen, Liu & Deng, Kent & Shengmin, Sun, 2018. "Forced ruralisation of urban youth during Mao’s rule and women’s status in post-Mao China: an empirical study," Economic History Working Papers 90615, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    6. Rojas, Mariano & Méndez, Alfonso & Watkins-Fassler, Karen, 2023. "The hierarchy of needs empirical examination of Maslow’s theory and lessons for development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    7. Liang, Yu & Dong, Jing, 2022. "The impact of the send-down experience on the health of elderly Chinese women: Evidence from the China family panel studies," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 377-389.
    8. Weina Zhou, 2017. "Resilience in Youth: Evidence from a Forced Migration in China," Working Papers daleconwp2017-04, Dalhousie University, Department of Economics.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    send-down movement; forced migration; marriage; social network; happiness; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

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