TITLE:
Geographic Labor Mobility of Floating Migrant Workers in China: The Impacts of Health Status and Education on Earnings
AUTHORS:
Chien-Ping Chen, Lin Guo, Lijian Qin
KEYWORDS:
Labor Mobility, Migrant Workers, Health Status, Education, Earnings, China
JOURNAL NAME:
Theoretical Economics Letters,
Vol.8 No.11,
August
15,
2018
ABSTRACT: The
geographic labor mobility has been ignored in the studies related to the
impacts of health status or education on floating migrant workers’ earnings in
China. Based on a dataset collected by the World Bank collaborated with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
in 2010, we initiate the assessment of
geographic mobility and explore the indirect impacts from health, education,
and other factors on earnings through it. A relatively poor, single, educated
migrant in good health with parent at home working in the manufacturing sector
presents the strongest geographic mobility. The comparative results indicate
that the total health impacts on earnings are generally underestimated
for migrant workers at poor or fair health status and the education advancement
has a greater impact on earnings for the majority of migrant workers who
exhibit the “healthy migrant effect”.
Our findings not only justify the ground of mixed results in the previous
studies but also provide policy making implications. Given the concave
relationship between health status and geographic labor mobility, the ongoing
health care reform in China should provide local affordable services to attract
returning migrants and enhance their earnings.