Migration, Remittances and Rural Employment Patterns: Evidence from China

Sylvie Démurger and Shi Li ()

No 1230, Working Papers from Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon

Abstract: This paper explores the rural labor market impact of migration in China using crosssectional data on rural households for the year 2007. A switching probit model is used to estimate the impact of belonging to a migrant-sending household on the individual occupational choice categorized in four binary decisions : farm work, wage work, self-employment and housework. The paper then goes on to estimate how the impact of migration differs across different types of migrant households identified along two additional lines : remittances and migration history. Results show that individual occupational choice in rural China is responsive to migration, at both the individual and the family levels, but the impacts differ : individual migration experience favors subsequent local off-farm work, whereas at the family level, migration drives the left-behinds to farming rather than to off-farm activities. Our results also point to the interplay of various channels through which migration influences rural employment patterns.

Keywords: labor migration; labor supply; remittances; temporary migration; left-behind; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 J22 O15 O53 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-dev, nep-mig and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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ftp://ftp.gate.cnrs.fr/RePEc/2012/1230.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Chapter: Migration, Remittances, and Rural Employment Patterns: Evidence from China (2013)
Working Paper: Migration, remittances and rural employment patterns: Evidence from China (2013)
Working Paper: Migration, remittances and rural employment patterns: Evidence from China (2012)
Working Paper: Migration, Remittances and Rural Employment Patterns: Evidence from China (2012)
Working Paper: Migration, remittances and rural employment patterns: Evidence from China (2012)
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