A Study On Impact Of Rural Labor Migration On Regional Economic Disparity

Great changes have taken place in Chinese economy in some twenty years after the Reform and opening up. Owing to the melting of the urban and rural dualistic system, national economy obtained high-speed growth. Whereas behind the rapid economy growth were the enlarging gap between urban and rural areas and regional economy disparity. Large gap between urban and rural areas leads to the migration from rural areas to cities. And the migration is getting more and more flourishing with the loosening rural-urban segmentation system .The migration brings wide range influence on social and economic development. For the moving-out areas, migration liberates labor with zero marginal productivity in agriculture field, which increases the per-capita resources in rural areas. Migration also brings cash income. Above all, migration is helpful in changing farmers' lag behind concept, which plays great part in forming the human capital in rural areas. While for the moving-in areas, a large amount of cheap rural labors migrating to the urban areas meet the fast-growing demand of labor recourse in the rapid economy growth in economic developed areas, especially that in labor concentrated industries and informal sector in urban areas.On the other hand, since Chinese rural labors' migration happened in the process of economic system transition, which marks it some obvious characters of transition. The range and depth of migration are influenced by the process of dualistic system reform, which have much effect on regional economy disparity. Base on the above cognition, this paper mainly studies the relationships between rural labor migration, regional economy disparity and institutional change and analyses the effect of rural labor migration on regional economy disparity.Firstly, this paper examines the changes of regional economy disparity in China since the beginning of Reform and opening up, and estimates the number of migration meanwhile the paper briefly describes the characters of migration. Through comparing the development of rural labor migration to the change of regional economy disparity in time and space, we find high correlativity between the two. On the basis of this finding, making reference to theβ-convergence model, with migration data and related data, the paper then analyses and verifies the impact of rural labor migration on regional economy disparity. Putting rural labor migration under the background of economic system reform, the paper points out that at the beginning of Reform and opening up, the development of a integrated labor market in rural area creates a convenient environment for rural labor migration within rural area, making free rural labor migration within rural area, which is good for the diminishing of disparity. While the trans-regional migration during the end of 1980s and 1990s also promotes the regional economy growth, it far from restricting the regional economy disparity in the range and depth, for too many barriers.Start with the examination of changes of urban and rural gap since 1990s, the paper explores the regional economy disparity in income between eastern China, mid-China and western China and the impact of rural labor migration on the disparity. The finding shows that the divergence between eastern rural economy, middle rural economy and western rural economy is an significant reason for the expanding of regional economy disparity. And by increasing farmer income and promoting the forming of rural human capital, rural labor migration has a great contribution to rural economy growth in a region.After proving the contribution of rural labor migration to regional economy growth, the paper analyses the current situation and problems of Chinese rural labor migration and points out that rural-urban segmentation system, the inferior quality of rural labors as a whole and the lagging development of the labor market make the main limits to fully migration. Finally, the paper puts forward the key to promote rural labor migration to coordinate the developing of region economy, which lies in transferring the idea on how to manage migrated population, enhancing reforming migrated population management system, promoting the development of integration of urban and rural labor markets and improving the quality of rural population.