IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/6644.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Telecommunications externality on migration : evidence from Chinese Villages

Author

Listed:
  • Lu, Yi
  • Xie, Huihua
  • Xu, Lixin Colin

Abstract

This paper uses a unique natural experiment in Chinese villages to investigate whether access to telecommunications-- in particular, landline phones -- increases the likelihood of outmigration. By using regional and time variations in the installation of landline phones, the difference-in-differences estimation shows that access to landline phones increases the ratio of out-migrant workers by 2 percentage points, or about 50 percent of the sample mean in China. The results remain robust to a battery of validity checks. Furthermore, landline phones affect outmigration through two channels: information access to job opportunities and timely contact with left-behind family members. The findings underscore the positive migration externality of expanding telecommunications access in rural areas, especially in places where migration potential is large.

Suggested Citation

  • Lu, Yi & Xie, Huihua & Xu, Lixin Colin, 2013. "Telecommunications externality on migration : evidence from Chinese Villages," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6644, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6644
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2013/10/07/000158349_20131007133449/Rendered/PDF/WPS6644.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shuming Bao & Örn B. Bodvarsson & Jack W. Hou & Yaohui Zhao, 2011. "The Regulation Of Migration In A Transition Economy: China'S Hukou System," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 29(4), pages 564-579, October.
    2. Robert Jensen & Emily Oster, 2009. "The Power of TV: Cable Television and Women's Status in India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(3), pages 1057-1094.
    3. Kathleen Beegle & Joachim De Weerdt & Stefan Dercon, 2008. "Adult Mortality and Consumption Growth in the Age of HIV/AIDS," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(2), pages 299-326, January.
    4. Harrison, Ann E. & Lin, Justin Yifu & Xu, Lixin Colin, 2014. "Explaining Africa’s (Dis)advantage," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 59-77.
    5. A. Colin Cameron & Jonah B. Gelbach & Douglas L. Miller, 2008. "Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 414-427, August.
    6. Paul Winters & Alain de Janvry & Elisabeth Sadoulet, 2001. "Family and Community Networks in Mexico-U.S. Migration," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 36(1), pages 159-184.
    7. McKenzie, David & Gibson, John & Stillman, Steven, 2013. "A land of milk and honey with streets paved with gold: Do emigrants have over-optimistic expectations about incomes abroad?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 116-127.
    8. Heckman, J.J. & Hotz, V.J., 1988. "Choosing Among Alternative Nonexperimental Methods For Estimating The Impact Of Social Programs: The Case Of Manpower Training," University of Chicago - Economics Research Center 88-12, Chicago - Economics Research Center.
    9. L. Rachel Ngai & Christopher A. Pissarides, 2007. "Structural Change in a Multisector Model of Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(1), pages 429-443, March.
    10. Gordon H Hanson & Craig McIntosh, 2010. "The Great Mexican Emigration," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(4), pages 798-810, November.
    11. Jenny C. Aker, 2010. "Information from Markets Near and Far: Mobile Phones and Agricultural Markets in Niger," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(3), pages 46-59, July.
    12. Robert Jensen, 2007. "The Digital Provide: Information (Technology), Market Performance, and Welfare in the South Indian Fisheries Sector," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(3), pages 879-924.
    13. 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.
    14. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    15. Aker, Jenny C. & Clemens, Michael A. & Ksoll, Christopher, 2011. "Mobiles and mobility: The Effect of Mobile Phones on Migration in Niger," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Berlin 2011 2, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    16. Muto, Megumi, 2009. "The impacts of mobile phone coverage expansion and personal networks on migration: evidence from Uganda," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 51898, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    17. David McKenzie & Hillel Rapoport, 2010. "Self-Selection Patterns in Mexico-U.S. Migration: The Role of Migration Networks," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(4), pages 811-821, November.
    18. Harald Uhlig, 2006. "Regional Labor Markets, Network Externalities and Migration: The Case of German Reunification," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 383-387, May.
    19. Harris, John R & Todaro, Michael P, 1970. "Migration, Unemployment & Development: A Two-Sector Analysis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 126-142, March.
    20. Futoshi Yamauchi & Sakiko Tanabe, 2008. "Nonmarket networks among migrants: evidence from metropolitan Bangkok, Thailand," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 21(3), pages 649-664, July.
    21. Takashi Yamano & Keijiro Otsuka & Frank Place (ed.), 2011. "Emerging Development of Agriculture in East Africa," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-94-007-1201-0, June.
    22. Barr, Abigail & Oduro, Abena, 2002. "Ethnic fractionalization in an African labour market," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 355-379, August.
    23. LAU, Chi Keung Marco, 2010. "New evidence about regional income divergence in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 293-309, June.
    24. Zheng, Shilin & Ward, Michael R., 2011. "The effects of market liberalization and privatization on Chinese telecommunications," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 210-220, June.
    25. Sherman Robinson, 1971. "Sources of Growth in Less Developed Countries: A Cross-Section Study," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 85(3), pages 391-408.
    26. Li, Wei & Xu, Lixin Colin, 2004. "The Impact of Privatization and Competition in the Telecommunications Sector around the World," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47(2), pages 395-430, October.
    27. Kaivan Munshi, 2003. "Networks in the Modern Economy: Mexican Migrants in the U. S. Labor Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(2), pages 549-599.
    28. Yaohui Zhao, 2003. "The Role of Migrant Networks in Labor Migration: The Case of China," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 21(4), pages 500-511, October.
    29. Matthew Gentzkow, 2006. "Television and Voter Turnout," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(3), pages 931-972.
    30. Lee Komito, 2011. "Social media and migration: Virtual community 2.0," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 62(6), pages 1075-1086, June.
    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. Zhou, Di & Zha, Fangjing & Qiu, Wenyan & Zhang, Xiaoru, 2024. "Does digital literacy reduce the risk of returning to poverty? Evidence from China," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(6).
    2. Zheng Cai & Shengsheng Li & Di Cheng, 2023. "Has Digital Village Construction Improved Rural Family Resilience in China? Evidence Based on China Household Finance Survey," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-20, May.
    3. Sheng Liu & Ming Bai & Min Yao & Ke Huang, 2021. "Identifying the natural and anthropogenic factors influencing the spatial disparity of population hollowing in traditional villages within a prefecture-level city," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(4), pages 1-21, April.
    4. Fang, Lan & Quan, Yurong & Mao, Hui & Chen, Shaojian, 2022. "The Information Communication Technology and Off-farm Employment of Rural Laborers: An Analysis Based on the Micro Data of China Family Panel Studies," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322088, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Danyang Li & Daizo Kojima & Laping Wu & Mitsuyoshi Ando, 2024. "Impact of rural households' digital ability on their production efficiency in China," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(1), pages 139-160, January.
    6. Wan, Guanghua & Wang, Chen & Zhang, Xun & Zuo, Congming, 2024. "Income inequality effect of public utility infrastructure: Evidence from rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    7. Ping Xue & Xinru Han & Yongchun Wang & Xiudong Wang, 2022. "Can Agricultural Machinery Harvesting Services Reduce Cropland Abandonment? Evidence from Rural China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-15, June.
    8. Wang, Jierong & Yang, Gang & Zhou, Chaojun, 2024. "Does internet use promote agricultural green development?Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PA), pages 98-111.
    9. Muhammad Noshab Hussain & Zaiyang Li, 2024. "Dynamic Appertain Between Telecommunication Infrastructure and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence of OIC Countries," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(1), pages 1973-1992, March.

    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. Farré, Lídia & Fasani, Francesco, 2013. "Media exposure and internal migration — Evidence from Indonesia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 48-61.
    2. Ning Jia & Raven Molloy & Christopher Smith & Abigail Wozniak, 2023. "The Economics of Internal Migration: Advances and Policy Questions," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 61(1), pages 144-180, March.
    3. Guo, Rufei & Zhang, Junsen & Zhou, Minghai, 2024. "The demography of the great migration in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    4. Marco Manacorda & Andrea Tesei, 2020. "Liberation Technology: Mobile Phones and Political Mobilization in Africa," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(2), pages 533-567, March.
    5. Bertoli, Simone & Moraga, Jesús Fernández-Huertas & Guichard, Lucas, 2020. "Rational inattention and migration decisions," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    6. Jose Luis Castillo Mezarina, 2021. "The impact of free trade agreements in national markets: Evidence from the telecommunications sector in Latin America," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 860-903, September.
    7. Valsecchi, Michele, 2014. "Land property rights and international migration: Evidence from Mexico," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 276-290.
    8. Francesco Fasani, 2018. "Immigrant crime and legal status: evidence from repeated amnesty programs," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 887-914.
    9. Valsecchi, Michele, 2010. "Land Certification and International Migration: Evidence from Mexico," Working Papers in Economics 440, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    10. Jonas Hjort & Jonas Poulsen, 2019. "The Arrival of Fast Internet and Employment in Africa," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(3), pages 1032-1079, March.
    11. Aker, Jenny C. & Clemens, Michael A. & Ksoll, Christopher, 2011. "Mobiles and mobility: The Effect of Mobile Phones on Migration in Niger," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Berlin 2011 2, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    12. Alan de Brauw & John Giles, 2017. "Migrant Opportunity and the Educational Attainment of Youth in Rural China," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 52(1), pages 272-311.
    13. Edo, Anthony & Rapoport, Hillel, 2019. "Minimum wages and the labor market effects of immigration," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    14. Hoffman, Mitchell & León, Gianmarco & Lombardi, María, 2017. "Compulsory voting, turnout, and government spending: Evidence from Austria," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 103-115.
    15. Toman Barsbai & Hillel Rapoport & Andreas Steinmayr & Christoph Trebesch, 2017. "The Effect of Labor Migration on the Diffusion of Democracy: Evidence from a Former Soviet Republic," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 36-69, July.
    16. Bargain, Olivier & Boutin, Delphine & Champeaux, Hugues, 2019. "Women's political participation and intrahousehold empowerment: Evidence from the Egyptian Arab Spring," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    17. Marcel Fafchamps & Forhad Shilpi, 2013. "Determinants of the Choice of Migration Destination," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 75(3), pages 388-409, June.
    18. Ward, Michael R. & Zheng, Shilin, 2016. "Mobile telecommunications service and economic growth: Evidence from China," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 89-101.
    19. Catia Batista & Ana Isabel Costa, 2016. "Assessing the role of social networks on migrant labor market outcomes: Evidence from a representative immigrant survey," FEUNL Working Paper Series novaf:wp1601, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Economia.
    20. Omar Mahmoud, Toman & Trebesch, Christoph, 2009. "The Economic Drivers of Human Trafficking: Micro-Evidence from Five Eastern European Countries," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 39939, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    E-Business; Population Policies; Access to Finance; ICT Policy and Strategies; Anthropology;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O50 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - General

    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:wbk:wbrwps:6644. 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: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.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.