International Trade Liberalization and Domestic Institutional Reform: Effects of WTO Accession on Chinese Internal Migration Policy

Tian, Yuan

Abstract

Economic institutions that impede factor mobility become more costly when an economy experiences substantial transitions such as trade liberalization. I study how trade triggers changes in labor institutions that regulate internal migration in the context of China's Hukou system. Using a newly-collected dataset on prefecture-level migration policies, I document an increase in pro-migrant regulations following WTO entry and estimate the impact of prefecture-level tariffs on exports on migration regulations from 2001 to 2007. I find that regions facing more export market liberalization enacted more migrant-friendly regulations.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 20, 2022
• Online Publication Date: May 14, 2024
• Publication Date: May 14, 2024
• Deposit Date: Feb 14, 2023
• Journal: The Review of Economics and Statistics
• Print ISSN: 0034-6535
• Electronic ISSN: 1530-9142
• Publisher: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 106
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 794-813
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_01175
• Keywords: Economics and Econometrics; Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/17377895
• Publisher URL: https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article/doi/10.1162/rest_a_01175/109920/International-Trade-Liberalization-and-Domestic