Relaxing Hukou: Increased labor mobility and China’s economic geography

Taste heterogeneity, labor mobility and economic geography∗

This paper investigates the impact of the heterogeneity of the labor force on the spatial distribution of activities. This goal is achieved by applying the tools of discrete choice theory to an economic geography model. We show that taste heterogeneity acts as a strong dispersion force. We also show that the relationship between the spatial distribution of the industry (the wage differential) a...

Labor Mobility in China and India: The Role of Hukou, Caste, and Community

Major debates on the industrialization of agrarian economies view labor mobility—sectoral and spatial, from agriculture to industry and from villages and small towns to cities—as central to understanding the pace and nature of industrialization. Many see labor mobility as the result of the commercialization and capitalization of agriculture, which leads to an increasing number of peasants who a...

Economic geography

Geography and Economic Development

Location and climate have large effects on income levels and income growth through their effects on transport costs, disease burdens, and agricultural productivity, among other channels. Geography also seems to affect economic policy choices. Many geographic regions that have not been conducive to modern economic growth have high population densities and are experiencing rapid increases in popu...

Geography and Economic Growth

This paper addresses the complex relationship between geography and macroeconomic growth. It investigates the ways in which geography may matter directly for growth, controlling for economic policies and institutions, as well as the effects of geography on policy choices and institutions. It finds that location and climate have large effects on income levels and income growth through their effe...