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Aging and Migration in a Transition Economy: The Case of China

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  • Bodvarsson, Örn B.

    (Willamette University)

  • Hou, Jack W.

    (California State University, Long Beach)

  • Shen, Kailing

    (Australian National University)

Abstract

Post-reform China has been experiencing two major demographic changes, an extraordinary amount of internal migration and an aging population. We present a general migration model which captures the idea that older migrants have shorter durations in the destination but possibly larger general human capital to transfer. Therefore, the incentive to migrate is ambiguously related to age. We test the theoretical implication using an extended modified gravity model, nuanced to fit the case of a transition economy. We find that shifts in China's age distribution have generated significant changes in the country's migration patterns.

Suggested Citation

  • Bodvarsson, Örn B. & Hou, Jack W. & Shen, Kailing, 2014. "Aging and Migration in a Transition Economy: The Case of China," IZA Discussion Papers 8351, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8351
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Kuhn, Peter J. & Shen, Kailing, 2014. "Do Employers Prefer Undocumented Workers? Evidence from China's Hukou System," IZA Discussion Papers 8289, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Peter Kuhn & Kailing Shen, 2015. "Do employers prefer migrant workers? Evidence from a Chinese job board," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-31, December.
    3. Arnaud Dupuy, 2021. "Migration in China: To work or to wed?," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(4), pages 393-415, June.
    4. Anzelika Zaiceva, 2014. "The impact of aging on the scale of migration," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-99, November.
    5. Zaiceva, A. & Zimmermann, K.F., 2016. "Migration and the Demographic Shift," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 119-177, Elsevier.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    internal migration; age distribution; reforms;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts

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