The Impact of Social Capital on Wages of Rural Migrants and its Gender Difference in China

The objective of this article is to study the impact of social capital on the wages of Chinese rural migrants and the gender difference of the effect. The empirical results show that both “bridging” and “bonding” social capital have positive effects on wages, but “bridging” has a more significant effect. Friendly relationships between migrants and local workers can help the migrants increase the probability of earning upper middle to high wages by 6.4%. Migrants whose jobs are introduced by friends or relatives have over 1.6% higher probabilities of earning a upper middle to high wage. In addition, gender differences exist in the social capital effect on wage. The “bridging” effect on male migrants’ wage is significantly larger than the effect on female migrants’ wage, while the “bonding” effect on female’s wage is larger than the effect on male’s wage. Some policy implications are discussed.