1 论文标题
Measuring the Income-Distance Tradeoff for Rural-Urban Migrants in China
2 作者信息
Zhang, Junfu (ClarkUniversity)
Zhao, Zhong (Renmin University of China)
3 出处和链接（比如，NBER working paper No.11000）
IZA DP No. 7160, Jan 2013
4 摘要
Rural-urban migrants inChina appear to prefer nearby destination cities. To gain a betterunderstanding of this phenomenon, we build a simple model in which migrantsfrom rural areas choose among potential destination cities to maximize utility.The distance between a migrant's home village and destination city isexplicitly included in the utility function. Using recent survey data, we firstestimate an individual's expected income in each potential destination cityusing a semi-parametric method, controlling for potential self-selectionbiases. We then estimate the indirect utility function for rural- urbanmigrants in China based on their migration destination choices. Our baselineestimates suggest that to induce a migrant to move 10 percent further away fromhome, the income of this migrant has to increase by 15 percent. This elasticityvaries very little with migration distance; it is slightly higher for femalethan male migrants; it is not affected by the migrant's age, education, ormarital status. We explore possible explanations of these results and discusstheir policy implications.