Chasing opportunity? Inequality of opportunity and educational self-selection of interprovincial migrants in China

This paper investigates the effects of two different income inequality components, inequality of opportunity (IOP) and inequality of effort (IOE), on the educational self-selection of interprovincial migrants in China. Employing 2010 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) survey data and 2015 one percent population sampling survey data, our empirical results verify that lower levels of income inequality and two components, IOP and IOE, in destination increase migration incentives more for low-educated migrants, which largely explains the higher migration probabilities of lower-educated ones from inland to coastal provinces during 2011–2015. Further results demonstrate that young migrants who migrate to coastal regions pay more attention to the IOP than other migrant groups.