The Unintended Long-term Consequences of Mao’s Mass Send-Down Movement: Marriage, Social Network, and Happiness

Shun Wang () and Weina Zhou ()

No 213, HiCN Working Papers from Households in Conflict Network

Abstract: This paper uses the China General Social Survey (CGSS) 2003 to evaluate the long-term consequences of a forced migration, the state’s “send-down” movement (shang shan xia xiang, or up to the mountains, down to the villages) during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, on individuals’ nonmaterial well-being. The send-down program resettled over 16 million urban youths to the countryside to carry out hard manual labor over the years 1968-1978. Most of them were allowed to return to urban areas when the Cultural Revolution ended. We find that those who had the send-down experience have worse marriage outcome, lower-quality social network, and lower level of happiness than their non-send-down counterparts. The negative effects of the forced migration are robust against a detailed set of family backgrounds and personal characteristics.

Keywords: Send-down movement; Forced migration; Marriage; Social network; Happiness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 J12 J18 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2016-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-hap, nep-mig, nep-soc and nep-tra
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Journal Article: The Unintended Long-Term Consequences of Mao’s Mass Send-Down Movement: Marriage, Social Network, and Happiness (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hic:wpaper:213

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