Does hukou still matter? The household registration system and its impact on social stratification and mobility in China

摘要

The household registration system has been a basic institutional arrangement in Chinese society. Under this system, registered residence (hukou) plays an important role in resource allocation and interest distribution, and thus exerts a significant impact on social stratification and mobility. After nearly three decades of reform and opening up, does it still play a role, and, if so, what is this role? Drawing on data from the China General Social Survey, we find that China's social stratification is characterized by the simultaneous existence of differentiation between urban and rural hukou and hierarchy within urban hukou; furthermore, there is a positive correlation between one's opportunities for social mobility and the possibility of changing and transferring one's hukou. Despite the increasing social mobility ensuing from market-oriented transformation, the hukou hierarchy and its structural influence on mobility within the institutional framework persist. The strongly conglutinative nature of the household registration system has given rise to social disparities. The basic direction for reform of the system should be unification of hukou and free choice of movement from one place to another.