The circular migration of smallholders in Kenya

Circular migration is a central phenomenon in the lives of smallholders in East Africa. Many migration decisions are not individual decisions, but rather household decisions in which the household allocates its labor force among activities to maximize household utility. A probit model which incorporates circular migration and takes into account contacts, information, and indivisibilities is used to analyze migration among 763 farm households in the Central and Nyanza provinces of Kenya. Study data are from a 1982 survey. The pull of high urban wages appears to be a far more important determinant of migration decision outcomes than the push of land scarcity, while a strong local nonagricultural economy does not seem to restrict migration. Networks of personal contacts were found to be highly significant determinants of migration. These findings suggest that rural development will probably not reduce the flow of migration.     

Identifying the effects of migration on parental health: Evidence from left-behind elders in China

This study pioneers the application of the New Economics of Labor Migration theory to outline and estimate two opposite effects of labor loss driven by the migration and remittances of adult children on the health of left-behind elderly parents through the changing rural market constraints. We use China's rural household survey data and simultaneous equation econometric techniques to estimate the effects of migration on the physical and mental health of left-behind elders. Results indicate that the loss of labor due to migration has a significantly negative effect on the health of left-behind elders, but remittances from migrants can compensate for the adverse effect. This study provides a comprehensive understanding that remittances from migration relax the constraints on household resource allocations in undeveloped rural areas with imperfect market conditions. Overall, left-behind elderly parents benefit from migrant children both physically and mentally.     

Rural Labor Migration and Poverty Reduction in China

Using various sources of data, this paper examines the contributions of rural labor migration to economic growth and poverty reduction in China. The results show that there is still a significant number of people living in poverty in rural areas, while the effectiveness of migration on poverty reduction has declined, implying an urgent need for new approaches to poverty reduction. China's experiences could also be valuable for the formulation of development strategies in other developing countries.     

Labor migration: Economic and social effects (A sociological survey)

This paper is based on the results of a survey of households of labor migrants in 10 large cities of Russia: demographic composition of migrants; incidence of employment outside the native community and its geography; wealth and living conditions of the families of labor migrants. It examines the efficiency of outside employment and migration plans of migrants’ families. All problems are analyzed at the level of cities and types of employment.     

农村劳动力迁移为什么没有缩小城乡收入差距——以广东为例

广东经济发展过程中出现农村劳动力迁移量和城乡收入差距同时扩大的现象,本文从农村迁移劳动力在城市劳动力市场上的就业分布和农村劳动力迁移对城乡人力资本差距的影响两方面对此与传统经济学理论相悖的现象进行了分析.本文认为农村劳动力迁移没有缩小城乡收入差距一方面因为农村劳动力在城市劳动力市场受到歧视,一般在城市次要劳动力市场就业;另一方面因为农村劳动力迁移扩大了城乡人力资本差距,从而扩大了城乡收入差距.     

Black americans and Ghanaians: Comparative patterns of internal migration

Conclusions For our purposes here, the analysis has been fruitful in that it has served to indicate and underscore in both general and specific terms the sources and determinants of migration movement and the destination of migrants. The qualitative analysis and the statistical test have led to several research conclusions. Both United States and Ghanaian migrants behave in accordance with the migration concepts examined. Common relationships between migration and economic opportunity are apparent. While push factors have generally initiated migratory movement among black Americans, particularly in respect to the South, both groups tend to move to regions with better economic opportunities. In both cases, migration is a negative function of distance, and a large labor force at the origin is a stimulus to out-migration at the origin.     

Empirical Research on the Mechanisms of Migration of Rural Laborers from Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region

This paper studies the formation mechanisms of the pattern of labor force migration in the ethnic minority area, based on a sample of 120 administrative villages in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and by means of questionnaire investigation and indoor interview. The formation mechanism of the pattern of labor force migration, in essence the decision-making mechanism of the rural labor migration, could be interpreted by two factors, i.e. the motives to migrate, and the condition of migration. The rural labor migration in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has its own characteristics. The research shows a tendency that a complex mixture of different motives to migrate is gradually replacing a single economic one; the pursuit of a better cultural and social life has become more important. With respect to the social condition (or the social capital factor) of the fulfillment of rural labor force migration in Ningxia, the help of relatives and friends of rural laborers still serves as the main bridge. The advent and development of rural labor broking, however, has become an important element to promote rural migration in Ningxia. Meanwhile, local governments are also making efforts to accelerate the rural labor migration.     

What should economists know about the current Chinese hukou system?

This article explains the current hukou system in China and provides the most recent evidence on the impact of the hukou system on the Chinese labor market and economy. By a comprehensive literature survey, this paper shows that the hukou system plays in two major roles in current China. First, workers with different hukou face different costs of living in cities and have different access to government-provided public services and welfare programs in the urban areas. Migrants with rural and non-local hukou working in the Chinese big cities have no or little access to welfare programs provided by local city governments. Second, there exists labor market discrimination against rural hukou holders in cities, especially in the urban high-wage sector such as state-owned enterprises. The current hukou system has a negative impact on rural-to-urban migration in China as well as on economic efficiency and equality by reducing the expected benefits associated with migration.     

Migrants and urban wage: Evidence from China's internal migration

Using China's 2005 1% population survey, this paper examines the wage impact on urban workers of rural to urban migration. We find that, on average, migrants increase the wages of urban workers, with the effect being magnified for more skilled urban workers. This suggests that migrants with skills similar to those of urban workers may complement them. We explore the possible channels of these effects. From the supply perspective, we find that migration inflows accelerate the occupational upgrading of urban workers, especially for low- and medium-skilled workers. From a demand perspective, as the share of migrants in the urban labor force increases, the number and output of industrial firms also increase, and firms become more reliant on low-skilled workers. The more migrants in a city, the greater the available employees for industrial firms, particularly for low-skilled employees. However, the effects on high-skilled firms are much smaller or insignificant. In addition, we find that migrants have little impact on firms' capital-labor and capital-output ratios. This suggests that firms can expand through capital adjustments to absorb inexpensive migrants, which alleviates the possible negative impact of migrants on the urban labor market.     

MIGRATION,LABOR MARKET FLEXIBILITY,AND WAGE DETERMINATION IN CHINA: A REVIEW

This paper reviews economic studies on rural‐urban migration issues in China. The paper focuses on four issues: the household registration system in China, the profile of the migrants, explanations for rural‐to‐urban migration, and the interaction between migration and labor market evolution, with special reference to labor market segregation, labor market flexibility, and wage differentials. The paper concludes with suggestions for further research topics.     

Accounting Recognition,Moral Hazard,and Communication*

Two complementary sources of information are studied in a multiperiod agency model. One is an accounting source that partially but credibly conveys the agent's private information through accounting recognition. The other is an unverified communication by the agent (i.e., a self‐report). In a simple setting with no communication, alternative labor market frictions lead to alternative optimal recognition policies. When the agent is allowed to communicate his or her private information, accounting signals serve as a veracity check on the agent's self‐report. Finally, such communication sometimes makes delaying the recognition optimal. We see contracting and confirmatory roles of accounting as its comparative advantage. As a source of information, accounting is valuable because accounting reports are credible, comprehensive, and subject to careful and professional judgement. While other information sources may be more timely in providing valuation information about an entity, audited accounting information, when used in explicit or implicit contracts, ensures the accuracy of the reports from nonaccounting sources.     

International factor migration and the U.S.

Conclusion The model employed is sufficiently realistic to provide conclusions regarding income distribution due to factor migration. While more disaggregation and other models would be revealing, these results correspond to observed positions on migration issues. Owners of a productive factor can be expected to favor migration policy, either the making or enforcing of laws, favorable to themselves. A factor owner's sentiments can be predicted by identifying patterns of friendship. While each productive factor is its own enemy, empirical results for the U.S. identify two pairs of enemies as well: capital/skilled and semiskilled/unskilled labor. Unskilled labor is a friend of capitalists and skilled labor, both of which can be expected to favor their free immigration.     

Labor market developments in China: A neoclassical view

This paper assesses the applicability of two alternative theories in understanding labor market developments in China: the classical view featuring a Lewis turning point in wage growth versus a neoclassical framework emphasizing rational choices of individuals and equilibrating forces of the market. Empirical evidence based on multiple data sources fails to validate the arrival of the Lewis turning point in China, showing continuous and coordinated wage growth across rural and urban sectors instead. Consistent with the neoclassical view, we find that rural workers expanded off-farm work when mobility restrictions were lifted, interprovincial migration responded to expected earnings and local employment conditions, and returns to education converged gradually to the international standard. These findings suggest major progresses in the integration of labor markets in China.     

中国非永久乡城迁移的福利分析

本文运用福利经济学的分析工具,阐述了农村劳动力非永久乡城迁移是在既定的约束条件下的一种理性选择。比较了不迁移、非永久迁移和永久迁移之间的福利差别,从而明确非永久迁移比不迁移的福利大,而从长远来看,应引导农村劳动力向永久性迁移转变。     

Labor migration and problems of innovative development

The negative effects of the current process of labor migration in Russia are analyzed in this article. It is proposed to limit the migration of low-skilled labor by means of setting quotas and to make the number of labor migrants contingent upon the direct investment in high technology from countries that export labor.     

Financial and economic characteristics and trends of interstate labor migration

International labor migration and its financial and economic consequences in the form of labor migrants?? international cash transfers are reviewed in the paper. The trends in labor migration from CIS countries to Russia are revealed.     

流动成本与城市间劳动力配置效率

参照Tombe and Zhu（2019）并结合城市层面的数据可得性,文章先测度了2000-2015年期间272个城市的劳动力流动成本,然后将其引入Hsieh and Moretti（2019）的城市空间均衡模型,考察了流动成本的变化对城市间劳动力配置效率的影响。研究发现：第一,城市间劳动力配置效率的动态变化与流动成本紧密相关,表现为2000-2015年期间流动成本的整体水平先升后降,而劳动力配置效率则先降后升。第二,流动成本的存在降低了城市间劳动力配置改善的速度,表现为在不考虑和考虑流动成本的情形中,2000-2015年期间城市剩余工资离散程度分别下降28.21%和9.83%。第三,一线城市对经济增长的贡献率被低估,并且在考虑流动成本的情形中,其被低估的问题更加严重。     

The social-demographic situation and labor migration: the Far Eastern vector

This paper examines the demographic and migration components in the development of the population potential in the Far East of Russia, as well as issues of the social development and their effect on the comfort of living in the region. The labor migration and use of foreign labor in the region are examined.     

The impacts of income gaps on migration decisions in China

Using survey data from China, this article examines the effects of income gaps on migration decisions and the sources of these gaps. The econometric results support the hypothesis that income gaps significantly influence migration decisions. When income gap reaches a certain level, the reaction of the migration probability to income gap is weaker for men than for women. The relative income of women is less sensitive to an increase in rural income but more sensitive to a decrease in urban income than that of men. Moreover, we find that the urban to rural income gap is larger for women than for men, which suggests that women receive larger monetary return from migration than men do. In decomposing income gaps, we find that the gap for men is largely determined by differences in the attributes of migrants and nonmigrants, whereas for women, the gap is mainly determined by differences in returns to attributes.     

On the efficiency of labor markets

Summary Important changes in labor market parameters and a growing awareness of the cost of equity-promoting policies have led to increased interest in the efficiency of labor markets. This paper uses the orthodox result in the case of perfect competition to survey efficiency aspects of deviating assumptions: collective negotiations, imperfect information, risk and dynamics associated with education and technology. Perfect competition is found an inadequate standard, as many ‘imperfect’ market modifications enhance efficiency. This is a translation and revision of my inaugural lecture at the Universiteit van Amsterdam. May 16, 1983.