Maintaining a young, well-educated labor force is an important strategy for regional economic development and social vitality. Based on a comparative study of China and Japan, this article aims to elicit 1) the factors that affect college students’ employment migration preference; and 2) the differences between migration preferences of students from the two countries and the possible explanations for such differences. With the use of survey data from approximately 2,000 college students in the two countries, this study identifies region of origin as a key determinant of employment migration choice in both countries. The region of origin functions as a critical point differentiating primary and secondary labor markets for individuals, whereas the first-tier region in each country is a popular work destination. A one-way bottom-up migration from lower-ranking to higher-ranking regions is revealed in our regional hierarchy model. Findings suggest that Chinese students were oriented to employment opportunities and economic well-being while Japanese students were more inclined to consider personal lifestyle and local amenities. The findings imply that reducing regional disparities in economic development and income levels in China and enhancing urban service facilities in Japan may encourage college graduates to remain in their home regions.
Compensation paid to property owners for land expropriation is always a controversial topic, partly due to the difficulty in revealing households’ true valuation of their housing. This paper estimates and discusses the widely observed ‘willingness to accept–willingness to pay’ (WTA–WTP) gap for surveyed residents of their own houses during land expropriation. By testing several hypotheses interpreting the WTA–WTP disparity from previous studies, the paper tries to establish the incentive for households’ decision-making. The paper employs a contingent valuation method with data from 315 household interviews in central Beijing, China. The paper reports an average WTA/WTP ratio of 3.74 and reaches the conclusion that in our case the high compensation required by property owners largely derives from opportunistic pricing behaviour rather than sentimental attachment to the dwellings that is unobservable in the market price, and that the WTA of the residents is intentionally overpriced.
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