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On the basis of the data derived from China's 2005 1% population sample survey, this paper examines regional and personal factors that shape locations chosen by China's interprovincial skilled migrants. It aims to evaluate the relative weight of employment opportunities, and amenities, and the ownership structure of economy in determining skilled migrants' destination choices, and the extent to which such place-based factors work differently among different types of skilled individuals. The results indicate that China's skilled migration is driven mainly by interregional income differentials and that regional variations in amenities and ownership structure play a less important role in this regard. Furthermore, compared with college diploma holders, bachelor's degree holders are more responsive to wage levels and are less sensitive to the risk of unemployment, whereas those with managerial and professional occupations and those without hukou at the destinations are more sensitive to wages and employment possibilities. In addition, there is little evidence that the effects of amenities differ greatly across life-course groups, but those holding hukou at the destinations are more attracted to places with ample government-provided amenities. The findings suggest that at least in the first half of 2000s, China's skilled people prioritise career prospects over amenity-related issues in their migration decisions and that institutional arrangements continue to affect interregional movements of skilled labour in China.

Abstract. This paper examines the spatial patterns and determinants of China's interprovincial skilled migration by using data from 2005 one per cent population sample survey. While the coastal region benefits from the influx of skilled labour, the rest of China suffers from severe brain drain. Estimates from zero-inflated negative binomial gravity models indicate that employment opportunities, especially interregional wage differentials, play a dominant role in attracting skilled labour, and that the impact of amenities on skilled migration turns out to be small and less clear. Findings suggest that China's skilled people prioritize their career prospects over the quality of life in the migration decision-making process.JEL classification: J61, O15, R23

Previous analysis and modelling of interregional migration in China have treated migrants as a homogenous group. The flow of skilled migration is the focus of recent research. However, the skilled and less-skilled migrations have not been systematically analysed and compared in terms of their determinants. Previous modelling of interregional migration in China does not take network autocorrelation into consideration. This paper attempts to fill this research gap by modelling skilled and less-skilled migrations in China using the eigenvector spatially filtered method. It is found that both skilled and lessskilled migrants tend to move away from the interior to the coastal region. Results from the eigenvector spatially filtered negative binomial regression model show that, compared with the migration of less-skilled people, the migration of skilled people is less influenced by the friction of distance, the regional unemployment rate, and the concentration of foreign investment but is more affected by the regional wage disparity. With respect to the effect of amenities, climatic amenities exert a strong influence on skilled migration but have positive effect on less-skilled migration at origin and no effect at destination. Quality medical services are influential for the migration of less-skilled people to destinations but no effect on skilled people.

BackgroundPrevious studies in developed countries have found that living in rapidly urbanizing areas is associated with higher risk of mental illness and that social capital had a protective effect on individual mental health. However, the literature is missing empirical studies of the relationship between urbanization, neighborhood social capital and mental health in rapidly urbanizing countries. To bridge this knowledge gap, this study investigated the effects of urbanization on depressive symptoms in China, with an emphasis on the mediating role of neighborhood social capital in the relationship between urbanization and individual-level depressive symptoms.MethodsNationally representative survey data from the 2016 wave of China’s Labor-force Dynamics Survey were used. A sample of 20,861 individuals was obtained from 401 neighborhoods in 158 prefecture-level divisions of 29 provinces. Depressive symptoms were measured using CES-D scores. Neighborhood social capital was assessed by three individual-level variables aggregated to the neighborhood level: perceptions of neighborly trust, the extent of neighborly reciprocity, and membership to neighborhood social groups. Multilevel linear regression and mediation analyses were used to estimate the statistical relationships.ResultsThe multilevel linear regression analyses found negative relationships between urbanization rate and CES-D score. The mediation analysis found that neighborhood-level social capital was an inconsistent mediator in the relationship between urbanization rate and CES-D score. Interaction terms between urbanization rate and two measures of neighborhood-level social capital were statistically significant, indicating that the protective effects of neighborly reciprocity and membership to neighborhood social groups on CES-D scores (negative relationships) were stronger in the relatively more urbanized areas.ConclusionUrbanization supports mental health in the Chinese context, although it might undermine residents’ mental health by reducing neighborhood social capital. The protective effect of neighborhood-level reciprocity and social group membership on mental health increased with urbanization.

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