Remittances and Expenditure Patterns of the Left Behinds in Rural China

Sylvie Démurger and Xiaoqian Wang ()
Additional contact information
Xiaoqian Wang: GATE, University of Lyon

No 9640, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper investigates how private transfers from internal migration in China affect the expenditure behaviour of families left behind in rural areas. Using data from the Rural-Urban Migration in China (RUMiC) survey, we assess the impact of remittances sent to rural households on consumption-type and investment-type expenditures. We apply propensity score matching to account for the selection of households into receiving remittances, and estimate average treatment effects on the treated. We find that remittances supplement income in rural China and lead to increased consumption rather than increased investment. Moreover, we find evidence of a strong negative impact on education expenditures, which could be detrimental to sustaining investment in human capital in poor rural areas in China.

Keywords: propensity score matching; remittances; labour migration; expenditure behaviour; left-behind; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 J22 O15 O53 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2016-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-cna, nep-lma, nep-mig and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (31)

Published - published in: China Economic Review, 2016, 37, 177-190

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp9640.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Remittances and expenditure patterns of the left behinds in rural China (2016)
Working Paper: Remittances and expenditure patterns of the left behinds in rural China (2016)
Working Paper: Remittances and expenditure patterns of the left behinds in rural China (2016)
Working Paper: Remittances and expenditure patterns of the left behinds in rural China (2016)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9640

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().