Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
submittedVersion
Publication Date
1-2020
Abstract
This paper quantitatively studies the local welfare impacts of inter-city migration in China. We structurally estimate a trade model with endogenous migration decisions using data from 279 prefecture-level cities. The results suggest that inflows of migrant workers increase welfare in the destination cities between 2000 and 2005 despite their negative impacts on congestion and nominal wage. The positive local impacts of migration depend crucially on the endogenous firm entry. The positive impacts in the destination cities also spill over to the neighboring cities through inter-city trade, often leading to higher welfare gains in the nearby cities than the destination cities themselves. We also show that further relaxing the Hukou restrictions in the largest Chinese cities is welfare-improving to the local residents.
Keywords
Regional trade, Migration, Welfare, Economic geography
Discipline
Asian Studies | Behavioral Economics | Human Geography | Regional Economics
Research Areas
Applied Microeconomics
Publication
Journal of Urban Economics
Volume
115
First Page
1
Last Page
24
ISSN
0094-1190
Identifier
10.1016/j.jue.2019.06.004
Publisher
Elsevier: 24 months
Citation
1
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2019.06.004
Included in
Asian Studies Commons, Behavioral Economics Commons, Human Geography Commons, Regional Economics Commons