Rights statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Youth Studies on 05 March 2019, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13676261.2019.1587153
Accepted author manuscript, 1.84 MB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Migration premium?
T2 - The economic returns to youth inter-province migration in post-reform China
AU - Zhao, Mengyao
AU - Hu, Yang
N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Youth Studies on 05 March 2019, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13676261.2019.1587153
PY - 2019/11/1
Y1 - 2019/11/1
N2 - Every year, millions of young people migrate away from their home provinces for higher education and employment in China. However, less is known about the extent to which Chinese young people may benefit economically from their migration. Analyzing nationally representative data from the new China College Student Survey, this paper examines the impact of inter-province migration on the starting salaries of Chinese young people after undergraduate studies. Utilizing the method of propensity score matching, this research reveals differences in the economic returns to migration for higher education and for work, and between young people of rural and urban hukou origins. The economic premium attached to inter-province education migration is largely mediated and thus explained by socioeconomic disparities across Chinese provinces. By contrast, young people’s work migration generates a positive economic premium, over and above the wage disparity between sending and host provinces. Underlining the context-dependent nature of the migration premium, the results draw attention to China’s institutional features—i.e. the structural configurations of education and work migration and the hukou system—in shaping the economic returns to youth migration. Rural and urban young people’s differential access to the migration premium may also exacerbate socioeconomic inequalities in post-reform China.
AB - Every year, millions of young people migrate away from their home provinces for higher education and employment in China. However, less is known about the extent to which Chinese young people may benefit economically from their migration. Analyzing nationally representative data from the new China College Student Survey, this paper examines the impact of inter-province migration on the starting salaries of Chinese young people after undergraduate studies. Utilizing the method of propensity score matching, this research reveals differences in the economic returns to migration for higher education and for work, and between young people of rural and urban hukou origins. The economic premium attached to inter-province education migration is largely mediated and thus explained by socioeconomic disparities across Chinese provinces. By contrast, young people’s work migration generates a positive economic premium, over and above the wage disparity between sending and host provinces. Underlining the context-dependent nature of the migration premium, the results draw attention to China’s institutional features—i.e. the structural configurations of education and work migration and the hukou system—in shaping the economic returns to youth migration. Rural and urban young people’s differential access to the migration premium may also exacerbate socioeconomic inequalities in post-reform China.
KW - China
KW - economic return
KW - hukou
KW - migration premium
KW - starting salary
KW - youth migration
U2 - 10.1080/13676261.2019.1587153
DO - 10.1080/13676261.2019.1587153
M3 - Journal article
VL - 22
SP - 1409
EP - 1427
JO - Journal of Youth Studies
JF - Journal of Youth Studies
SN - 1367-6261
IS - 10
ER -