ACCI Conference 2024

Increasing income among rural workers may help reduce poverty, especially in emerging economies. This study examines factors associated with decisions of inter-sectoral mobility of agricultural laborers and income changes after they move from agriculture to manufacturing or service sectors. Using multiple waves of data from the China Family Panel Studies in 2014 - 2020, we employ multinomial logit and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression models, finding that both forms of mobility help alleviate rural poverty and farm-manufacturing mobility results in a higher income increase (7,847 yuan) compared to farm-service mobility (5,106.474 yuan). In contrast to females, males are more likely to find manufacturing jobs thus have more income increase. Education attainment, training, social capital, and internet usage show positive effects on inter-sectoral mobility, while children have negative effects on inter-sectoral mobility especially for rural women looking for service jobs. To deal with the selection bias, we employ a treatment effect model in robustness analysis and confirm previous findings. Our conclusions provide agricultural laborers with relevant economic information on how to make better inter-sectoral mobility decisions, and indicate the gender wage gap and gender difference based on family duty. This research also has public policy implications for improving the economic wellbeing of rural laborers.

Author(s): Ting An, JingJian Xiao, Nilton Porto