The impact of the “Full Liberalization of Household Registration” policy on the free migration of rural labor

Abstract

This study compiles and analyzes household registration reform policy documents from 283 prefectural-level cities in China, constructing a policy variable for “full liberalization of household registration.” This variable is then matched with individual-level data from the China Household Finance Survey. Employing a Regression Discontinuity Difference-in-Differences (RD-DID) approach, this study identify the causal effect of the “full liberalization of household registration” on rural labor migration decisions. The study finds that the policy significantly increases the migration of rural labor, reduces return migration, promotes the accompanying migration of family members (elderly and children) and increases the rate of family migration, and alleviates the problems of elderly and left-behind. However, the effect of short-distance mobility is more substantial than that of long-distance mobility. The results of the mechanism analysis show that the policy does not raise labor force income(but may decrease it), but promotes the comprehensive sharing of basic public services such as education and healthcare among the migrants, an important factor driving labor migration.