China's mobility barriers and employment allocations

L. Rachel Ngai, Christopher Pissarides and Jin Wang

No 11657, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: China’s hukou system imposes two main barriers to population movements. Agricultural workers get land to cultivate but run the risk of losing it if they migrate. Social transfers (education, health, etc.) are conditional on holding a local hukou. We show that the land policy is a more important barrier on industrialization. This distortion can be corrected by giving property rights to farmers. Social transfers dampen mainly urbanization. We calculate that the two policies together lead to overemployment in agriculture of 6.7 points, under-employment in the urban sector of 6.3 points and have practically no impact on the rural non-agricultural sector.

Keywords: Mobility barriers; Employment allocations; China hukou; Social subsidies; Land policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J61 O18 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-lab, nep-tra and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Journal Article: China’s Mobility Barriers and Employment Allocations (2019)
Working Paper: China’s mobility barriers and employment allocations (2019)
Working Paper: China’s Mobility Barriers and Employment Allocations (2018)
Working Paper: China's mobility barriers and employment allocations (2018)
Working Paper: China’s mobility barriers and employment allocations (2017)
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