Estimating the labour transformation elasticity between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors in China.

摘要

In this paper we examine labour mobility between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors in China using a household survey data set. We use the approaches of Jacoby, as well as Sicular and Zhao, to estimate the elasticity of transformation of labour between agricultural and non-agricultural employment. Firstly, shadow wages are imputed by estimating the household agricultural production function. Secondly, labour supply decisions are modelled as functions of imputed shadow wages, observed market employment wages and other relevant variables. The coefficients of the labour supply equations are then used to derive the labour transformation elasticity. Our empirical results show that China's labour market at the beginning of the 2000s, as measured by the ease of transfer between agriculture and non-agriculture, was relatively open, despite continuing institutional barriers. This has important implications when assessing the distributional impact of further opening of China's economy to international trade.Digital Object Identifier http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/16507541.2011.574448