IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tpr/restat/v106y2024i3p794-813.html

International Trade Liberalization and Domestic Institutional Reform: Effects of WTO Accession on Chinese Internal Migration Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Yuan Tian

    (University of Nottingham)

Abstract

Economic institutions that impede factor mobility become more costly when an economy experiences substantial transitions such as trade liberalization. I study how trade triggers changes in labor institutions that regulate internal migration in the context of China’s Hukou system. Using a newly collected dataset on prefecture-level migration policies, I document an increase in promigrant regulations following WTO entry and estimate the impact of prefecture-level tariffs on exports on migration regulations from 2001 to 2007. I find that regions facing more export market liberalization enacted more migrant-friendly regulations.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuan Tian, 2024. "International Trade Liberalization and Domestic Institutional Reform: Effects of WTO Accession on Chinese Internal Migration Policy," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(3), pages 794-813, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:106:y:2024:i:3:p:794-813
    DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01175
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_01175
    Download Restriction: Access to PDF is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1162/rest_a_01175?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Yu, Li & Zhao, Siyuan & Liu, Chen & Chen, Fenglan, 2025. "The acceleration and attenuation: Internet infrastructure and employment adjustment patterns," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 726-743.
    2. Ma, Zhendong & Wang, Di & Feng, Fan & Zhao, Tianhui, 2025. "Moving out of agriculture: How trade liberalization affects agricultural productivity in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    3. Peng, Guohua & Zhao, Xiaoling, 2025. "Effects of export growth on the location choices of migrant workers: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    4. Du, Xinming & Qin, Yu & Xie, Yu, 2026. "Green regulation, trade friendliness, and local policy adaptation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    5. Xie, Enze & Xu, Mingzhi & Yu, Miaojie, 2024. "Trade liberalization, labor market power, and misallocation across firms: Evidence from China's WTO accession," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    6. Deng, Zichen & Luo, Weixiang & Plug, Erik & Yu, Jia, 2025. "The Relationship Between Earnings and Sexual Orientation: First Evidence from China," IZA Discussion Papers 18317, IZA Network @ LISER.
    7. Chen, Zhu & Shang, Qianqian & Zhang, Jipeng, 2024. "Recent progress in hukou reform and labor market integration in China: 1996–2022," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    8. Wei Luo & Xianqiang Zou, 2024. "Demographic impacts of China’s trade liberalization: marriage, spousal quality, and fertility," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(3), pages 1-31, September.
    9. Xianru Han & Wenying Li & Haoluan Wang, 2024. "A Burning Issue: Wildfire Smoke Exposure, Retail Sales, and Demand for Adaptation in Healthcare," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 87(11), pages 3011-3039, November.
    10. Masahiro ENDOH & Toshiyuki MATSUURA & Akira SASAHARA, 2025. "The Effect of Import Shocks on Internal Migration in Japan," Discussion papers 25108, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    11. Yuan Zi, 2025. "Trade Liberalization And The Great Labor Reallocation," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 66(2), pages 933-963, May.
    12. Cao, Huoqing & Chen, Chaoran & Xi, Xican, 2024. "Home Production and Gender Gap in Structural Change," MPRA Paper 122334, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:106:y:2024:i:3:p:794-813. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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 RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: The MIT Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://direct.mit.edu/journals .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.