China's Mobility Barriers and Employment Allocations

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ngai, L. Rachel; Pissarides, Christopher A.; Wang, Jin
• 署名单位: University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; Hong Kong University of Science & Technology; Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1542-4766
• DOI: 10.1093/jeea/jvy035
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 1617-1653
• 关键词: agricultural productivity; land-tenure; structural transformation; PROPERTY-RIGHTS; rural china; urban china; institutions; migration; security; arrangements

摘要

China's hukou system imposes two main barriers to population movements. Agricultural workers get land to cultivate but are unable to trade it in a frictionless market. Social transfers (education, health, etc.) are conditional on holding a local hukou. We show that the land policy leads to over-employment in agriculture and it is the more important barrier to industrialization. Effective land tenure guarantees and a competitive rental market would correct this inefficiency. The local restrictions on social transfers also act as disincentives to migration with bigger impact on urban migrations than to job moves to rural enterprises.