The Local Labor Market Effect of Relaxing Internal Migration Restrictions: Evidence from China

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: An, Lei; Qin, Yu; Wu, Jing; You, Wei
• 署名单位: Chongqing University; National University of Singapore; Peking University; Tsinghua University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/722620
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 161-200
• 关键词: hukou system; urban migration; immigration; IMPACT; INEQUALITY; outcomes; cities

摘要

We study how a significant relaxation of internal migration restrictions affects labor market outcomes of incumbent migrants and natives, exploiting the 2014 hukou reform in China, which substantially removed the migration barriers of cities with an urban population below 5 million (nonmegacities). Using a difference-in-differences method, we find that migrants' wages in nonmegacities experienced approximately a 2.6%-7.9% decline relative to that in megacities after the policy. The policy had nonnegative impacts on the wages of natives in nonmegacities. These results suggest that the downward wage pressure imposed by new migrants falls primarily on incumbent migrants rather than on natives.