Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/168570 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
GLO Discussion Paper No. 120
Publisher: 
Global Labor Organization (GLO), Maastricht
Abstract: 
Using a representative sample of rural migrants in cities, this paper investigates where the migrants in urban China come from, paying close attention to intra-provincial vs. inter-provincial migrants, and examining the differences in their personal attributes. We find that migrants who have come within the province differ significantly from those who have come from outside of the province. Using a nested logit model, we find that overall, higher wage differentials, larger population size, higher GDP per capita, and faster employment growth rate are the attributes of a city that attract migrants from both within and outside province. In addition, moving beyond one’s home province has a strong deterrent effect on migration, analogous to the “border effect” identified in international migration studies. We also explore the role of culture, institutional barrier, and dialect in explaining such a pronounced “border effect”.
Subjects: 
Rural-urban migration
Inter- vs. intra-provincial migration
Border effect
China
JEL: 
J62
O15
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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