{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.020347394540942927, 'fraction_numerical': 0.011910669975186104, 'mean_word_length': 5.951724137931034, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Human Capital Accrual, Skill Complementarity, and Urban Migration: New Evidence from China

This study seeks to distinguish among competing theories of urbanization in an explanation of recent, massive rural-to-urban migration in China. Specifically, the research evaluates whether Chinese urbanization following the 1990s liberalization of mobility and residential location restrictions was driven by migrant learning opportunities as in the skill-transition urbanization technology (Lucas, 2004), or instead was associated with a traditional dual-skill urbanization technology in which opportunities for migrant skill upgrading were largely absent. The analysis is facilitated by the application of an unusually rich data set to estimate skill-based selection of Chinese migrants in the context of a utility-maximizing directional migration model. Research findings suggest substantial differentials across skill-based strata in migratory response to regional disparities in returns to education. Model simulation further indicates that those disparities derive largely from regional variations in human capital rather than from positive skill complementarities in production (Giannetti, 2003; Berry and Glaeser, 2005) and accordingly serve to encourage regional convergence in human capital concentration. Further, results fail to support the hypothesis that benefits of human capital externalities in learning accrue to low-skilled migrants. According to Lucas (2004), such benefits operate as a key mechanism for economic transition from a dual-skill economy to a modern urbanized economy. The lack of such human capital externalities is consistent with the pervasiveness of institutional barriers in China which sustained urban segregation in occupation and social interactions to the disadvantage of low-skilled migrants (Wang and Zuo, 1999). Our estimates do show strong social interaction benefits for the educated population strata, which contributed to regional divergence in human capital concentration.