Floating Population: Migration With(Out) Family and the Spatial Distribution of Economic Activity

Clément Imbert, Joan Monras, Marlon Seror and Yanos Zylberberg

No 2023-26, Working Paper Series from Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Abstract: This paper argues that migrants’ decision to bring their dependent family members shapes their consumption behavior, their choice of destination, and their sensitivity to migration barriers. We document that in China: (i) rural migrants disproportionately move to expensive cities; (ii) in these cities they live without their family and in poorer housing conditions; and (iii) they remit more, especially when living without their family. We then develop a quantitative general equilibrium spatial model in which migrant households choose whether, how (with or without their family), and where to migrate. We estimate the model using plausibly exogenous variation in wages, housing prices, and exposure to family migration costs. We use the model to estimate migration costs and relate them to migration policy. We find that hukou policies protect workers in large, expensive, and high income cities at the expense of rural households, who use remittances to overcome some of these costs.

Keywords: migration; remittances; economic geography; spatial equilibrium (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J61 O15 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 107
Date: 2023-08-30
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-dem, nep-geo, nep-lab, nep-mig and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Floating population: migration with(out) family and the spatial distribution of economic activity (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fip:fedfwp:96924

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DOI: 10.24148/wp2023-26

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