Telecommunications Externality on Migration : Evidence from Chinese Villages

• Tác giả: Yi Lu
• Ngôn ngữ: eng
• Ký hiệu phân loại: 325.25 International migration and colonization
• Thông tin xuất bản: World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015
• Bộ sưu tập: Tài liệu truy cập mở
• ID: 302722
• Chủ đề: 1. ACCESS TO EDUCATION; 2. ACCESS TO INFORMATION; 3. ACCESS TO JOB; 4. ACCESSIBILITY; 5. AGRICULTURE PRODUCTION

Tóm tắt

This paper uses a unique natural experiment in Chinese villages to investigate whether access to telecommunications-- in particular, landline phones -- increases the likelihood of outmigration. By using regional and time variations in the installation of landline phones, the difference-in-differences estimation shows that access to landline phones increases the ratio of out-migrant workers by 2 percentage points, or about 50 percent of the sample mean in China. The results remain robust to a battery of validity checks. Furthermore, landline phones affect outmigration through two channels: information access to job opportunities and timely contact with left-behind family members. The findings underscore the positive migration externality of expanding telecommunications access in rural areas, especially in places where migration potential is large.