Impact of Rural-to-Urban Migration on Agricultural Commodity Inflation in China

Since the radical economic reforms initiated in the late 1970s, China, has been transformed from a stagnating socialist country into one of the world’s biggest economies. However, the ―invisible hand‖ of capitalism may not have succeeded in its magic without the 200 million workers who migrated from rural areas to the urbanized east coast. What are the implications of rural-to-urban migration on the agricultural sector, especially on recent sharp increases in food prices? On the basis of a survey of 150 individuals in 25 households in two villages of central China conducted in late March 2011, this paper explores the connection between the massive rural-to-urban migration movement and recent agricultural commodity inflation in China.