Beyond Lewis: rural‐to‐urban migration with endogenous policy change

Abstract

Purpose -This paper aims to answer the following questions concerning rural-to-urban labor migration in China: What is the impact of discrimination against non-Hukou in urban public service provision? Will such discrimination disappear in the future within the current policy-making framework? What is the result of such an endogenous policy change as far as urbanization and economic growth are concerned? Design/methodology/approach -The authors build a theoretical model of rural-urban migration, taking into account the cost of social conflict due to discrimination against urban non-Hukou in local public service. The possibility of endogenous policy change is also considered by numerical simulation. Findings -The authors prove that, in the early stage of urban economic growth when the losses of potential conflicts are relatively small, the exclusive urban public service provision may be beneficial to them, but the losses under such unequal public service provision policy increase in the process of urban growth, and after a certain stage of development, opening public service access equally to the immigrants will be a better choice, even if only the natives' utility is considered. Such an endogenous policy change not only decreases the within-city inequality and conflicts, but also advances the urbanization and urban economic growth.Research limitations/implications -The authors only consider two extreme cases of local public service provision, that is, the urban non-Hukou residents have equal access to public service or they are totally not entitled. The possibility of partial access to local public service is not considered in the model. Originality/value -The authors investigate impact of social conflicts on within-city inequality, urbanization as well as urban economic growth due to unequal social public service within urban residents. The model also shows an endogenous policy change during rural-urban labor migration.

Sustainable Community Transformation and Community Integration of Agricultural Transfer Population—A Case Study from China

“…In the process of urbanization, there is even a status inequality between residents with a local household registration and ATP without a local household registration. Immigrants who are temporary residents are not treated as city residents and have few rights in terms of labour and employment, housing, health services, education, and welfare guarantees [57]. To reach urbanization of the city, the needs of ATP in these areas must be taken into account to achieve the urban integration and community integration of the ATP.…”

Urbanization and Rural Development in the People’s Republic of China

“…However, the level of industrialization exceeded that of urbanization throughout the period, reflecting the characteristic of PRC urbanization lagging behind industrialization. The most important reason for this gap is the institutional barriers that hinder rural-to-urban migration and restrict the access of migrants to public services (Chen et al 2013). In Figure 12, the level of industrialization is measured by the ratio of secondary and tertiary industries' output value to GDP and the level of urbanization measured by the proportion of urban permanent residents.…”

“…With ongoing economic development, the services sector will create more jobs for migrants. When cities need more labor, the social costs of discriminating against migrants in public services become increasingly higher, so policy makers will have to remove the instruments of discrimination and allow in more migrants (Chen et al 2013). Figure 13 shows that, at the city level in 2010, the gap between urbanization and industrialization was negatively related to average wage, which means economic growth can narrow the urbanization-industrialization gap.…”

Urbanization and Urban Systems in the People's Republic of China: Research Findings and Policy Recommendations

“…The discriminations related to Hukou in the labor market directly lead to intraurban inequality and social conflicts (Chen and Lu, ). Chen, Liu, and Lu () pointed out that, even if labor market discrimination is removed, Hukou status still leads to inequality in public services, and consequently social conflicts and unproductive waste. Using data from Shanghai, Wang, Chen, and Lu () found that, compared with local residents, migrants have significantly lower trust scores in terms of within‐community trust, social trust and public trust.…”