The Quantity and Price Allocation Effect of Labor Marketization Reform Affect the Mobility of Migrant Children
Large-scale migration of rural residents in China has provided cities with abundant human capital,but it has also exacerbated the problem of left-behind children in the meantime.Paying attention to this important problem,we conduct a study exploring the impact of labor marketization reform on the migration decision of children in migrant families from both theoreti-cal and empirical perspectives.We firstly build a theoretical framework of labor marketization's impact on the migration decision of children in migrant families,which suggests that the labor marketization reform in cities can enhance the care capacity of migrant families for their children through price and quantity allocation effects,thereby promoting their children's mobility.Then we verify the theoretical framework based on China's labor marketization index and micro survey data of the migrant population(CMDS Data),revealing that labor marketization in cities has a significant influence on the probability of children moving with their families.Then we make further empirical analysis,revealing that the impact mechanism mainly mani-fests as a quantity allocation effect rather than a price effect.These conclusions remain robust af-ter restricting the sample,controlling the difficulty of migrant children's school enrollment and the characteristics of the outflow area,and using instrumental variables to alleviate endogeneity issues.Heterogeneity analysis finds that the promotion effect of labor marketization on the mobil-ity of children in migrant families is more significant for families with high parental skill levels,intra-provincial mobility,and those living in cities where labor-in tensive industries are domi-nant.The policy implication of this paper is that the government can alleviate the problem of left-behind children and intergenerational inequality by improving labor marketization reform to en-hance the level of factor allocation,and this effect is currently mainly manifested as a quantity al-location effect.Based on the analysis of the mechanism of quantity allocation effect and price effect,the government can formulate some reasonable policies,such as encouraging small and micro enterprises to absorb migrant population for employment,relaxing household registration restrictions and lowering the entry threshold of urban labor market,focusing on resolving the ob-stacles in the process of migrant population entering the labor market,allowing labor production factors to achieve full allocation through market mechanism.While deepening labor marketization reform,the policy maker should also consider the heterogeneity of different groups.For exam-ple,it can carry out labor skill training for migrant population with low-education level and es-tablish provincial fiscal special transfer payment system for cross-provincial migrant families.
labor marketization reformimmigrationleft-behind childrenaccompany-mi-grated children
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