The impact of job contact networks on wages of rural–urban migrants in China: a switching regression approach
In nationally representative household data from the 2008 Chinese Rural to Urban Migration Survey, nearly two thirds of rural–urban migrants found their employment through family members, relatives, friends or acquaintances. This paper investigates why the use of social network to find jobs is so pr...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
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Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
2017
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41742/ |
| _version_ | 1848796343282171904 |
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| author | Long, Wenjin Appleton, Simon Song, Lina |
| author_facet | Long, Wenjin Appleton, Simon Song, Lina |
| author_sort | Long, Wenjin |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | In nationally representative household data from the 2008 Chinese Rural to Urban Migration Survey, nearly two thirds of rural–urban migrants found their employment through family members, relatives, friends or acquaintances. This paper investigates why the use of social network to find jobs is so prevalent among rural–urban migrants in China, and whether migrants face a wage penalty as a result of adopting this job search method. Using a switch regression approach, we find evidence of positive selection effects of the use of networks on wages. Users of networks tend to be older, to have migrated longer ago and to be less educated. In addition, married workers and those from villages with more out-migrant are more likely to use networks, while those without local residential registration status are less likely. Controlling for selectivity, we find a large negative impact of network use on wages. Using job contacts brings access to urban employment, but at the cost of markedly lower wages. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:46:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-41742 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:46:28Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis (Routledge) |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-417422020-05-04T18:33:40Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41742/ The impact of job contact networks on wages of rural–urban migrants in China: a switching regression approach Long, Wenjin Appleton, Simon Song, Lina In nationally representative household data from the 2008 Chinese Rural to Urban Migration Survey, nearly two thirds of rural–urban migrants found their employment through family members, relatives, friends or acquaintances. This paper investigates why the use of social network to find jobs is so prevalent among rural–urban migrants in China, and whether migrants face a wage penalty as a result of adopting this job search method. Using a switch regression approach, we find evidence of positive selection effects of the use of networks on wages. Users of networks tend to be older, to have migrated longer ago and to be less educated. In addition, married workers and those from villages with more out-migrant are more likely to use networks, while those without local residential registration status are less likely. Controlling for selectivity, we find a large negative impact of network use on wages. Using job contacts brings access to urban employment, but at the cost of markedly lower wages. Taylor & Francis (Routledge) 2017-02-24 Article PeerReviewed Long, Wenjin, Appleton, Simon and Song, Lina (2017) The impact of job contact networks on wages of rural–urban migrants in China: a switching regression approach. Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, 15 (1). pp. 81-101. ISSN 1476-5292 Social network Job contact Wage Rural-urban migrant Switching regression http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14765284.2017.1287538 doi:10.1080/14765284.2017.1287538 doi:10.1080/14765284.2017.1287538 |
| spellingShingle | Social network Job contact Wage Rural-urban migrant Switching regression Long, Wenjin Appleton, Simon Song, Lina The impact of job contact networks on wages of rural–urban migrants in China: a switching regression approach |
| title | The impact of job contact networks on wages of rural–urban migrants in China: a switching regression approach |
| title_full | The impact of job contact networks on wages of rural–urban migrants in China: a switching regression approach |
| title_fullStr | The impact of job contact networks on wages of rural–urban migrants in China: a switching regression approach |
| title_full_unstemmed | The impact of job contact networks on wages of rural–urban migrants in China: a switching regression approach |
| title_short | The impact of job contact networks on wages of rural–urban migrants in China: a switching regression approach |
| title_sort | impact of job contact networks on wages of rural–urban migrants in china: a switching regression approach |
| topic | Social network Job contact Wage Rural-urban migrant Switching regression |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41742/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41742/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41742/ |