China’s mobility barriers and employment allocations

L. Rachel Ngai, Christopher Pissarides and Jin Wang

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: China’s hukou system imposes two main barriers to population movements. Agricultural workers get land to cultivate but are unable to trade it in a frictionless market. Social transfers (education, health, etc.) are conditional on holding a local hukou. We show that the land policy leads to over-employment in agriculture and it is the more important barrier to industrialization. Effective land tenure guarantees and a competitive rental market would correct this inefficiency. The local restrictions on social transfers also act as disincentives to migration with bigger impact on urban migrations than to job moves to rural enterprises.

Keywords: Chinese immigration; Chinese land policy; imperfect rental market; mobility barriers; hukou registration; social transfers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J61 O18 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2019-10-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-cna, nep-mig, nep-tra and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Published in Journal of the European Economic Association, 1, October, 2019, 17(5), pp. 1617 - 1653. ISSN: 1542-4766

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/100822/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: 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)
Working Paper: China's mobility barriers and employment allocations (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:100822

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