The determinants of job location and its effect on migrants' wages: Evidence from rural China

Using data collected from farm households in one county in central China, I have analyzed both the wage and job location outcomes of rural migrants. China is a vast nation with many disparate regions; therefore, we must take care to apply the conclusions we generate to the areas where they are most appropriate. Low income levels characterize the county from which the sample was drawn, and there are few local employment opportunities outside of agriculture. Unlike residents of the suburban counties located on the outskirts of major urban centers, migrants from Xiayi routinely travel a day or more to reach their destinations. However, the county is not nearly so remote as some of China's most destitute and most isolated rural areas located in the western provinces. It is likely that the patterns observed here are most representative of labor flows originating out of the low-income portions of central China and, in particular, rural Henan and some of its neighboring provinces (Hebei, northern Jiangsu, and portions of Anhui and Shandong). Hence, the inferences to be drawn from the analysis have most relevance to those populations as well.