The Impact Of Migrants-concentrated Neighbourhoods On Their Labor Market Outcome

This paper examines whether living in migrants-concentrated areas affect migrants’ employment and income in China.Using the 2016 China Migrants Dynamic Survey(CMDS)data and 1% national population sampling survey in 2015,we find that the concentrated residence of migrants increases their employment probability by 26.07%and increase their income by 45.84%.The results are similar using Baidu Search Index on reformation of urbanizing villages as instrumental variable.Heterogeneous analyses find that migrants’ residential concentration has a stronger positive employment effect for migrants aged 35 to 45 years old and uneducated and have a stronger positive income effect on younger migrants aged 16 to 35 years old,with college degree and above,those who are self-employed and with inter-province and inter-city mobilization.Mechanism analyses show that better social network and more-informal employment opportunities in migrants-concentrated areas increase employment rate.Living in migrants concentrated areas also help improving the job skills of new migrants,which in turn increase their income.These results show that help migrants integrate into the city would improve their labor market outcomes.