Migration, Remittances, and Rural Employment Patterns: Evidence from China

Abstract

This paper explores the rural labor market impact of migration in China using cross-sectional 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.

Citation

Démurger, S. and Li, S. (2013), "Migration, Remittances, and Rural Employment Patterns: Evidence from China", Giulietti, C., Tatsiramos, K. and Zimmermann, K.F. (Ed.) Labor Market Issues in China (Research in Labor Economics, Vol. 37), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 31-63. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0147-9121(2013)0000037006