Friday, May 02, 2008

Who has Time?

Every once in a while, more often than any of Us care to occur, a Paper comes along which We know requires in-depth study; We knowing that it is just not going to happen. Such it is with this Paper (pdf). The Construct of the Paper provokes interest, and the Conclusion practically begs for investigation:
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In this paper we demonstrated the positive effect that internal migration in China has had on the consumption per capita of households remaining in migrant sending communities, and also showed that these effects are stronger for poorer households within villages. Indeed, increased ease of migration from villages of rural China is associated with decreasing inequality within communities.38 Increases in out-migration also lead to more pronounced increases in the income of poorer households, and poorer households supply more labor to productive activities and experience more rapid income growth.

With respect to the impact of migration on investment in rural areas, we find that increases in migration from rural China are associated with increased accumulation of housing wealth and consumer durables, but we do not find evidence of a significant relationship between migration and investment in productive assets. Evidence that migration might affect investment in agriculture and promote specialization among poorer households is mixed. While we find no significant increases in investments related to agricultural production, poorer households are observed to increase their land holdings per capita, and thus expand their scale of agricultural production. Contrary to assertions in the China literature and evidence from the literature on Mexico-US migration, we do not find any indication that rural-urban migration in China is associated with increases in household investment in non-agricultural production. The lack of a robust impact of migration on productive investment stands in contrast to recent findings from the literature examining the impacts of international flows of labor (Woodruff and Zenteno, 2007; Yang, 2008).
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The mechanism of transference of Capital to rural areas seems immune to Migration aspects, though there appears to be a build-up of Capital assets within rural Households. This would imply that rural Capitalization is a subsidiary generation effort, as a new labor force enters the market structure. I would also doubt the robust model of Migrants sending funds back to their native areas regularly, believing that the urbanized increased Consumption Costs will quickly sever any long-lasting familial ties with rural areas. This would mean all the meters registering growth in the rural areas must be somewhat skewed by the indications that rural populations are Ageing more rapidly. Another thing that need be studied, but will not be! lgl

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