| Since the reform and opening up,China’s urbanization rate has increased from 17.9 percent in 1978 to 60.6 percent in 2019.In this process,a large number of labor force has flooded into cities,making a great contribution to urban construction and economic development.Urbanization has been a powerful engine for China’s sustained economic growth.However,compared with the average urbanization rate of 80% in developed countries,there is still a lot of room for improvement,so a larger proportion of the labor force will enter cities for employment.It is generally believed that the expected income of big cities is higher than that of small and medium-sized cities,which has always been the main destination for labor mobility.So do the labor incomes of big cities really benefit from their size? Is the impact of different household registration,different industry nature of the labor force the same? Is the microcosmic mechanism of urban agglomeration economy a driving force? These questions have not been adequately answered in the existing literature.At present,China is in the period of economic transformation,and it is of great practical significance to pay attention to and deeply study the income gap of urban labor force,which is the due meaning in the process of new urbanization.In order to find the answer to the above questions,this paper first discusses the function channels and mechanism of city size on labor income from three aspects: living cost difference,labor skill difference and energy group difference,and agglomeration economy.Secondly,the impact of city size on labor income was empirically analyzed by using CHIP data in 2013,and the heterogeneity of urban workers,migrant workers and labor samples from different industries was analyzed.Finally,it empirically tests whether the city size has an impact on the income of labor force through three micro-mechanisms of agglomeration economy: sharing,matching and learning.The research conclusions of this paper mainly include :(1)The expansion of city size has a positive promoting effect on the nominal income and the actual income of labor force.(2)The impact of city size on the income of migrant workers and urban workers is different.Compared with migrant workers,the impact of city size on the improvement of nominal income and actual income of urban workers is greater.(3)The influence of city size on the income of labor in different industries is different.The empirical results show that compared with knowledge-intensive and technology-intensive industries,the labor force in traditional industries gains more benefits from the expansion of urban scale.(4)The micro-mechanism of urban agglomeration economy is tested by the mediating effect model,and the results show that the three mechanisms of sharing,matching and learning have been verified.The results show that,first,the government should further promote the reform of the household registration system,so that migrant workers can fully enjoy the benefits of urban development.Secondly,the government and enterprises should take corresponding measures to improve the promotion effect of urban scale on the income of labor in traditional industries and narrow the income gap.Then,cities are encouraged to introduce policies to attract talent and improve their human capital.Finally,the government should not only support the development of large enterprises,but also increase the assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises,so as to attract more talents and make the labor force and the enterprise form a better match,so as to increase the income of labor force. |
