Telecommunications Externality on Migration : Evidence from Chinese Villages
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 installat...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Publications & Research |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2015
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/10/18359828/telecommunications-externality-migration-evidence-chinese-villages http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21473 |
| Summary: | 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. |
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