劳动力自由迁移为何如此重要?——基于代际收入流动的视角

未考虑人口迁移影响的代际收入弹性估计存在偏误。本文将人口迁移与区域特性纳入代际收入弹性估计方程,并运用迁移概率作为局部工具变量进行估计,发现迁移者的代际收入弹性不到未迁移者的一半。而当前我国代际收入流动的主要问题在于部分人群面临"代际低收入传承陷阱",他们可以通过迁移从而增加就业机会等方式摆脱这一陷阱,这至少可以使一代人免受代际低收入传承的困扰。进一步分析迁移对代际收入传递路径的影响,结果表明教育在可识别的代际收入传递路径中贡献最大,而迁移强化了这一影响。鉴于人口迁移对代际收入流动的重要影响,政府部门有必要进一步采取措施降低劳动力自由迁移的障碍,并合理分配教育资源,以增进社会公平程度。

Why Free Labor Migration Is So Important?——Based on the Perspective of Intergenerational Income Mobility

The estimation of intergenerational income elasticity will be inaccurate without considering labor migration. Using local instrumental variable, this paper incorporates labor migration and regional traits when we estimate the intergenerational income elasticity. The results suggest that intergenerational income elasticity of migrants is less than half of those that stay. The key problem of intergenerational income mobility in China is that some people were trapped by the low income kind of intergenerational transmission, which can be weakened through migration. We also attempt to identify the possible influence of path, and find that educational factor plays an important role in determining the intergenerational income elasticity. Migration enforces this influence. Thus, the government should further release the restrictions over labor migration and allocate educational resources appropriately, in order to increase intergenerational income mobility and achieve social equity.