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Ou, Jinghua (2013) Urbanisation and rural-urban migration: evidence from Chongqing in the period 2001 to 2011. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.

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Abstract

Following the launch of the 'Develop the West' strategy in 2000, western China has undergone huge changes. Chongqing has been at the leading edge of this wave of development and its model of economic reform is particularly interesting and has also attracted public attention. This study aims to answer a series of unexplored questions about Chongqing's urbanisation and rural-urban migration. The first empirical chapter (Chapter 4) derives a simultaneous equation model from the standard theoretical framework of wage growth to estimate the determinants of wage growth of urban workers of various industries and the effects of openness. Data for 38 industries in Chongqing over the past 11 years is grouped into four sets of panel data in terms of different magnitudes of openness. The data shows that the increase in the demand for labourers is positively related to the wage' growth of urban workers. Openness, captured by industry's utilisation or non-utilisation of FDI, impels industrial sectors to use automation techniques more efficiently. The effect of productivity on wages in the group of industries which do utilise FDI is more than twice that of those in the group of industries which do not. Moreover, this chapter has not found enough empirical evidence to support the theory that the building of new cities benefits urban wage growth.

The second empirical chapter (Chapter 5) examines the impacts of dynamic localisation and urbanisation externalities on Total Factor Productivity (TFP) in three sectors at the county level between 2001 and 2008, by using panel model estimates based on a modified production function. The results show that the all-industry category localisation externalities' elasticity to productivity is significantly negative and that urbanisation externalities are insignificant. The implication is that the specialisation in Chongqing is no longer able to afford the high growth of economic development; thus, the so called 'Chongqing model' lacks sufficient economic basis.

The third empirical chapter (Chapter 6) is based on an in-person survey of 102 households and l38 respondents carried out by the author in 2009. The chapter assesses the determinants of transferring behaviour of the rural-urban migrant workers by using Probit and OLS estimations. A number of conclusions can be drawn from the results. For instance, income in rural areas is crucial to migrant decision-making as to whether to accept urban hukou, and manufacturing and construction workers do not receive more wages than others. The survey results suggest that the quality of Chongqing's large urban population accumulation is still at a low level.

Item Type:	Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (PhD)
Supervisors:	Sutherland, D. Yao, S.
Keywords:	Urbanization, rural-urban migration, China, Chongqing
Subjects:	H Social sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races
Faculties/Schools:	UK Campuses > Faculty of Social Sciences, Law and Education > School of Contemporary Chinese Studies
Item ID:	14330
Depositing User:	EP, Services
Date Deposited:	16 Jun 2014 08:31
Last Modified:	15 Oct 2017 05:10
URI:	https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/14330

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