Rural Population Flow Of Henan Province And Its Influence On The Economic Development Of The Source Areas

Henan Province has a permanent population of 93.6 million, occupying 7.1% of that of the whole country, taking the third place in the list of population of China following Guangdong and Shandong Provinces. Out of the total permanent population of Henan,the agricultural population is 61.46 million, taking up 8.4% of the whole agricultural population of China., which exerts a heavy burdens on the province's social and economic development. In Henan, the average farmland per head is 1.2 mu, which is 0.21 mu less than the 1.41 mu about the standard of average farmland in China in 2004 and even less than the 1/3 of the average farmland of the world. In 2007, the surplus rural labor amount to 39.5833 million, with only 19 million or 48% exported. Because of the heavy burden the GDP of the province has been always lower the average of the country for many years. How to export the surplus labor force and convert the population advantage to economic advantage becomes speciaaly significant to Henan Province in its scientific development, construction of harmonious society and urban-rural balanced development. Besides, the orderly and rational flow of the rural population of the province is an important way both to quicken its rural economy, optimize it economic structure and remit its rural population pressure and to its promote industrialization, marketization and urbanization. The influence of population flow of Henan Province upon the economic development of the source area has become an issue concerned with by many scholar, and it is the aim of the present study.To guarantee the reliability of the data in this study,the author adopts the methodology of investigation and analysis, and conducts field survey. In the investigation of the difference of rural population flow areas the author interviewed and the farmers and put out questionnaires to the villages of in the concerned counties and analyzed the samples. In addition, the author refers to lots of literatures. Through these the author collects lots of data to know the motives and the factors that influence rural population flow, upon the basis of which models have been made to explore into the influence of the population flow on the source area by way of statistics.The present thesis analyzes the motivation, structure and restricting factors in population flow and its effect on local economic development. The study also summarizes the theories of rural population flow both home and abroad from the economic perspective, and makes the model of the rural population flow in the background of politics, Economy, society and culture in the transition period of China upon the binary economic structure theory, by-business theory,"push-draw"theory, anticipated revenue hypothesis, new labor force move and other population flow theories. Through the empirical analysis the study has demonstrated the economic motivations of population flow in the rural areas of Henan Province. The author also analyzes the influence population flow has exerted on the source regions in light of economic increase theories, upon the basis of which the actuality and tendency of population flow in Henan Province is analyzed.The author, through careful study as stated above, holds that the reform of economic system is the prerequisite of rural population flow, that rural population flow is clearly affected by individual factors, that rural surplus population flow is restricted by the policies of the target regions, that population flow is decisively significant for the source regions and effectively promotes the formation of rural human capitals, that the backwash effect of the flowing population is the main force in rural economic development, and that population flow has some passive effects as it has many active effects on the source regions. In sum, population flow exerts greater positive effects than negative ones on the economic development of the source areas of flow.