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Self‐selection and Earnings of Migrants: Evidence from Rural China
Author(s) -
Wu Zheren
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
asian economic journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.345
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 1467-8381
pISSN - 1351-3958
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8381.2010.02028.x
Subject(s) - nonfarm payrolls , earnings , selection (genetic algorithm) , work (physics) , wage , economics , demographic economics , china , positive selection , labour economics , agriculture , geography , biology , mechanical engineering , biochemistry , accounting , archaeology , artificial intelligence , computer science , engineering , gene
Using data from a rural household survey in China, this paper explores the link between employment choice (nonworking, local farm work, local nonfarm work and migratory work) and migrant earnings. We find significant self‐selection in migration. Youths, men, better‐educated individuals and those in good health are more likely to migrate. In terms of unobserved characteristics, we find positive selection in migration to be related to the alternatives of not working and local farm work, and negative selection to be related to local nonfarm work. Controlling for self‐selection, the wage returns to gender (male), education and health are lower than those obtained from OLS, and the returns to experience are higher. More importantly, we find different self‐selection between individuals who have moved as pioneers and migrants from households in which other members have already migrated.