Floating population: migration with (out) family and the spatial distribution of economic activity

Clément Imbert (), Joan Monras (), Marlon Seror and Yanos Zylberberg
Additional contact information
Clément Imbert: University of Warwick [Coventry]
Joan Monras: Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
Marlon Seror: UQAM - Université du Québec à Montréal = University of Québec in Montréal
Yanos Zylberberg: University of Bristol [Bristol]

Post-Print from HAL

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.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Economic Review- Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, 2023

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
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:hal:journl:halshs-04954386

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().