IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mos/moswps/2013-24.html

Participation and Expenditure of Rural-Urban Migrants in the Illegal Lottery in China

Author

Listed:
  • Zhiming Cheng
  • Russell Smyth
  • Gong Sun

Abstract

Using a unique dataset from the Pearl River Delta in China we examine the factors associated with rural-urban migrants’ participation in, and expenditure on, illegal gambling. We find that similar demographic and lifestyle characteristics are associated with participation in, and expenditure on, the illegal lottery. The characteristics which have the largest marginal effects on participation and expenditure are gender, whether one also participates in the legal lottery and playing mah-jong and other card games. The amount of a normal sized bet placed by males is 30 per cent higher than that placed by females, based on the mean value of a normal bet. The corresponding figures for those who participate in the official lottery and those who play mah-jong or card games respectively are 48 per cent and 39 per cent higher. Policy implications and recommendations stemming from the major findings are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhiming Cheng & Russell Smyth & Gong Sun, 2013. "Participation and Expenditure of Rural-Urban Migrants in the Illegal Lottery in China," Monash Economics Working Papers 24-13, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:mos:moswps:2013-24
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.buseco.monash.edu.au/eco/research/papers/2013/index.html
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Friedrich Schneider & Dominik Enste, 1999. "Shadow Economies Around the World - Size, Causes, and Consequences," CESifo Working Paper Series 196, CESifo.
    2. Cheng, Zhiming & Smyth, Russell, 2015. "Sex and happiness," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 26-32.
    3. Kam Wing Chan, 2010. "The Global Financial Crisis and Migrant Workers in China: ‘There is No Future as a Labourer; Returning to the Village has No Meaning’," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3), pages 659-677, September.
    4. Ingrid Nielsen & Russell Smyth & Qingguo Zhai, 2010. "Subjective Well-Being of China’s Off-Farm Migrants," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 315-333, June.
    5. Borg, Mary O. & Stranahan, Harriet A., 2005. "Does Lottery Advertising Exploit Disadvantaged and Vulnerable Markets?," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 23-35, January.
    6. Harriet A. Stranahan & Mary O. Borg, 1998. "Separating the Decisions of Lottery Expenditures and Participation: a Truncated Tobit Approach," Public Finance Review, , vol. 26(2), pages 99-117, March.
    7. Schneider, Friedrich, 2005. "Shadow economies around the world: what do we really know?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 598-642, September.
    8. Stranahan, Harriet & Borg, Mary O., 1998. "Horizontal Equity Implications of the Lottery Tax," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 51(1), pages 71-82, March.
    9. Nielsen, Ingrid & Smyth, Russell, 2008. "Who wants safer cities? Perceptions of public safety and attitudes to migrants among China's urban population," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 46-55, March.
    10. Scott, Frank & Garen, John, 1994. "Probability of purchase, amount of purchase, and the demographic incidence of the lottery tax," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 121-143, May.
    11. Garrick Blalock & David R. Just & Daniel H. Simon, 2007. "Hitting the Jackpot or Hitting the Skids: Entertainment, Poverty, and the Demand for State Lotteries," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(3), pages 545-570, July.
    12. Wenshu Gao & Russell Smyth, 2011. "What keeps China's migrant workers going? Expectations and happiness among China's floating population," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 163-182.
    13. Clotfelter, Charles T & Cook, Philip J, 1990. "On the Economics of State Lotteries," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 4(4), pages 105-119, Fall.
    14. Axel Dreher & Friedrich Schneider, 2010. "Corruption and the shadow economy: an empirical analysis," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 144(1), pages 215-238, July.
    15. Yaohui Zhao, 1999. "Leaving the Countryside: Rural-to-Urban Migration Decisions in China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 281-286, May.
    16. Stranahan, Harriet & Borg, Mary O., 1998. "Horizontal Equity Implications of the Lottery Tax," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 51(n. 1), pages 71-82, March.
    17. Dominik H. Enste & Friedrich Schneider, 2000. "Shadow Economies: Size, Causes, and Consequences," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(1), pages 77-114, March.
    18. Charles T. Clotfelter & Philip J. Cook, 1987. "Implicit Taxation in Lottery Finance," NBER Working Papers 2246, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Brad Humphreys & Yang Seung Lee & Brian P. Soebbing, 2011. "Modeling Consumers' Participation in Gambling Markets and Frequency of Gambling," Journal of Gambling Business and Economics, University of Buckingham Press, vol. 5(1), pages 1-22, March.
    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


    Cited by:

    1. Zhiming Cheng & Vinod Mishra & Ingrid Nielsen & Russell Smyth & Ben Zhe Wang, 2017. "Wellbeing in China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 1-10, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cho-Min Lin & Kung-Cheng Lin, 2007. "The demand for lottery expenditure in Taiwan: a quantile regression approach," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 4(42), pages 1-11.
    2. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:4:y:2007:i:42:p:1-11 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Torgler, Benno & Schneider, Friedrich & Schaltegger, Christoph A., 2007. "With or Against the People? The Impact of a Bottom-Up Approach on Tax Morale and the Shadow Economy," Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics, Working Paper Series qt6331x6vz, Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics.
    4. Sèna Kimm Gnangnon, 2022. "Do Aid for Trade Flows Help Reduce the Shadow Economy in Recipient Countries?," Economies, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-33, December.
    5. Hazans, Mihails, 2011. "What explains prevalence of informal employment in European countries : the role of labor institutions, governance, immigrants, and growth," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5917, The World Bank.
    6. Axel Dreher & Pierre-Guillaume Méon & Friedrich Schneider, 2014. "The devil is in the shadow. Do institutions affect income and productivity or only official income and official productivity?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 121-141, January.
    7. D’Hernoncourt, Johanna & Méon, Pierre-Guillaume, 2012. "The not so dark side of trust: Does trust increase the size of the shadow economy?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 97-121.
    8. Elena D’Agostino & Marco Alberto De Benedetto & Giuseppe Sobbrio, 2023. "Does the economic freedom hinder the underground economy? Evidence from a cross-country analysis," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 40(1), pages 319-341, April.
    9. Robert Gillanders & Sinikka Parviainen, 2018. "Corruption and the shadow economy at the regional level," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 1729-1743, November.
    10. repec:ilo:ilowps:413498 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Monica Violeta Achim & Sorin Nicolae Borlea & Lucian Vasile Găban & Alin Adrian Mihăilă, 2019. "The Shadow Economy and Culture: Evidence in European Countries," Eastern European Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(5), pages 352-374, September.
    12. Luc Jacolin & Joseph Keneck Massil & Alphonse Noah, 2021. "Informal sector and mobile financial services in emerging and developing countries: Does financial innovation matter?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(9), pages 2703-2737, September.
    13. Fedotenkov, Igor & Schneider, Friedrich, 2017. "Military expenditures and shadow economy in the Baltic States: Is there a link?," MPRA Paper 76194, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Brad Humphreys & Levi Perez, 2011. "Lottery Participants and Revenues: An International Survey of Economic Research on Lotteries," Working Papers 2011-17, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    15. Roberto Dell'Anno, 2022. "Theories and definitions of the informal economy: A survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(5), pages 1610-1643, December.
    16. Rubenstein, Ross & Scafidi, Benjamin, 2002. "Who Pays and Who Benefits? Examining the Distributional Consequences of the Georgia Lottery for Education," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 55(2), pages 223-238, June.
    17. Joseph Keneck-Massil & Alphonse Noah, 2019. "Shadow economy and educational systems in Africa," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 39(2), pages 1467-1478.
    18. Benno Torgler & Friedrich Schneider & Christoph Schaltegger, 2010. "Local autonomy, tax morale, and the shadow economy," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 144(1), pages 293-321, July.
    19. Psychoyios, Dimitrios & Missiou, Olympia & Dergiades, Theologos, 2021. "Energy based estimation of the shadow economy: The role of governance quality," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 797-808.
    20. Saunoris, James W., 2024. "Individualism, economic freedom, and the development of the shadow economy," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 48(1).
    21. Mazhar, Ummad & Méon, Pierre-Guillaume, 2017. "Taxing the unobservable: The impact of the shadow economy on inflation and taxation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 89-103.
    22. Andreas Buehn & Friedrich Schneider, 2012. "Corruption and the shadow economy: like oil and vinegar, like water and fire?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 19(1), pages 172-194, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:mos:moswps:2013-24. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc 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 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: Simon Angus (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dxmonau.html .

    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.