Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

submittedVersion

Publication Date

11-2021

Abstract

The household registration system (hukou system) in China has hampered rural-urban migration by posing large migration friction. The system has been gradually relaxed in the past few decades, but the reforms have been differential in city size. We find a striking contrast in migration patterns between years 2005 and 2015; rural people tended to move more to large cities in 2005, but more to small- and medium-sized cities in 2015. We calibrate a spatial quantitative model to the world economy in both years with China divided into rural, mega-city, and other-city regions. We find that alternative urbanization policies that are not differential and that are more laissez-faire substantially improve national welfare, in magnitudes that are comparable to the welfare gains from the trade liberalization that China has put in place in the past.

Keywords

Hukou system, household registration system, differential reform, urbanization policy, economic development, spatial quantitative analysis

Discipline

Asian Studies | Growth and Development | Regional Economics | Urban Studies and Planning

Research Areas

Applied Microeconomics; International Economics

Publication

Regional Science and Urban Economics

Volume

91

First Page

1

Last Page

18

ISSN

0166-0462

Identifier

10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2020.103639

Publisher

Elsevier

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2020.103639

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