Telecommunications externality on migration: evidence from Chinese Villages

Yi Lu, Huihua Xie and Lixin Xu

No 6644, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: This paper uses a unique natural experiment in Chinese villages to investigate whether access to telecommunications-- in particular, landline phones -- increases the likelihood of outmigration. By using regional and time variations in the installation of landline phones, the difference-in-differences estimation shows that access to landline phones increases the ratio of out-migrant workers by 2 percentage points, or about 50 percent of the sample mean in China. The results remain robust to a battery of validity checks. Furthermore, landline phones affect outmigration through two channels: information access to job opportunities and timely contact with left-behind family members. The findings underscore the positive migration externality of expanding telecommunications access in rural areas, especially in places where migration potential is large.

Keywords: E-Business; Population Policies; Access to Finance; ICT Policy and Strategies; Anthropology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-10-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mig and nep-tra
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Journal Article: Telecommunication externality on migration: Evidence from Chinese villages (2016)
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