Determining Factors of Urban Migration by University Graduates in China

Keywords: urban migration, university graduates, discrete choice experiment, China
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 08:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 09:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 67

Abstract

Entering the 21st century, a new phenomenon of urban-urban migration in China has attracted increasing attention. An increasing flood of university graduates joined the urban-urban migrants each year, searching for better job opportunities and quality of life. Despite the changing dynamics of the migration landscape in urban China, few studies have investigated the determining factors in migration decision of university graduates. This paper investigates following questions: what are the determining factors that drive university graduates’ urban migration decisions in Chinese cities? Are their migration decisions affected by their life experience?
We designed a discrete choice experiment, targeting new and recent university graduates in the country to answer these questions. We surveyed a random sample of more than 1300 university graduates across China and received 720 valid responses in 2020.
Our results suggest that rent/income ratio, income, housing price, city level, commute time and hukou are significant factors in university graduates’ migration decisions. Furthermore, life experience also play a role in urban migration decisions. Specifically, university graduates with bachelors’ degree and master’s degree exhibit different preferences in income level, housing price, city level, commute time and hukou. Female and male students significantly differ in preferences for income and city level. Home city level affects attitude towards rent/income ratio and city of different levels.
This paper explains the urban migration choice of the subgroup of population with high level of educational attainment (i.e. university graduates) in China. It also offers new evidence important to cities to design effective talent-recruitment incentives and policies.