Do Employers Prefer Undocumented Workers? Evidence from China's Hukou System (IZA Discussion Paper No. 8289)

TitleDo Employers Prefer Undocumented Workers? Evidence from China's Hukou System (IZA Discussion Paper No. 8289)
Publication TypeReport
Year of Publication2014
AuthorsKuhn, Peter, and Shen, Kailing
Date Published2014/06
InstitutionInstitute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Research Paper Series
CityBonn, Germany
KeywordsChina, hukou, temporary migration, undocumented migrants
Abstract

We study urban Chinese employers' preferences between workers with and without a local residence permit (hukou) using callback information from an Internet job board serving private sector employers. We find that employers prefer migrant workers to locals who are identically matched to the job's requirements; these preferences are especially strong at low skill levels. We argue that migrants' higher work hours and effort help to account for employers' preferences, and present evidence that efficiency wage and intertemporal labor substitution effects might explain these hours/effort gaps.

URLhttp://ssrn.com/abstract=2462721