The Impact of Cross-Dialectal Migration on Consumption Patterns of Rural Labor Households
The low consumption among mobile rural labor households in China is extremely salient.Existing studies have mostly ana-lyzed the household consumption behavior of rural migrant workers from individual and institutional perspectives,while neglecting the influence of cultural factors.Taking dialectal differences as a proxy variable,this study examines the restraining effect of cultur-al differences on the household consumption of mobile rural labor force.Empirical research based on the China Migrant Dynamic Survey(CMDS)reveals that migration across different dialect regions significantly inhibits the consumption rate and expenditure of rural labor households,which remains valid after a series of robustness and endogeneity tests.Mechanism analysis suggests that cross-dialectal migration affects household consumption by weakening the identity of rural labor in inflow areas and limiting the de-velopment of local social capital.Heterogeneity analysis indicates that,in terms of generational differences,cross-dialectal migration only exerts a significant inhibitory effect on the consumption of rural laborers aged 30 and above.In terms of the city scale of inflow areas,it has a marked negative impact on the household consumption of rural migrant workers in megacities and medium and small-sized cities.By incorporating cultural differences into the research framework of consumption among mobile rural labor households,this study not only enriches the existing literature in this field but also provides new thoughts for unleashing the consumption poten-tial of rural labor force.
Mobile Rural Labor ForceDialect RegionConsumption RateConsumption Expenditure