This report summarizes the characteristics of migration in the People's Republic of China (PRC) after its reforms and opening up. Rapid urbanization in the PRC has resulted from recent decades of intense rural-urban migration. The scale of migration increased rapidly and long-term migration is...

In cities, complementarity between a low-skilled and a high-skilled workforce can promote each other to improve labor productivity. In this study, we used earlier census data and 1% population survey data to examine the distribution of the skilled workforce in cities in the People's Republic of...

This paper examines the relationship between city size, migration, and urban income inequality using the 1% sample of the 2005 Census in the People's Republic of China (PRC). We calculate various measures of within-city income inequality for 252 PRC cities. It is found that city income...

This paper presents research findings on how urbanization enhances productivity and economic growth in both urban and rural sectors. Through agglomeration effects, employment opportunities and income levels can largely increase. In addition, the mechanisms of sharing, matching, and learning are...

With a self-constructed, unique historical data set for 240 counties that spans over centuries, this paper uses the ‘quasi-natural experiment' of capital relocation in 1421, during China's Ming Dynasty, as an exogenous shock to study the relationship between political governance and urban...

The People's Republic of China (PRC) is experiencing a trend toward population concentration in its large coastal cities. However, at the same time, there is also a distortion of city size toward small cities in the country. That is to say, the urban population in the PRC should further...

This paper provides a new explanation for China's low consumption-to-GDP ratio by highlighting the constraints of the “household registration system” (Hukou) on China's household consumption. Our baseline results show that the consumption of migrants is 16 percent to 20 percent lower than...