Household Registration, Urban Status Attainment, and Social Stratification in Urban China

导致城乡分割的户口制度对理解当代中国社会的分层和流动有着重要的作用,对中国城市化过程中的户籍制度改革亦具有政策启示意义。本文将中国快速城市化过程中产生的大量“农转非”的城市居民纳入研究视野,利用中国综合社会调查数据(CGSS 2003、2006、2008),考察非农户口对收入的影响效应。研究发现,户口转换所带来的收入优势仅限于通过高度选择性渠道实现“农转非”的群体。倾向分值匹配方法的分析更进一步显示,户口转换带来的收入效应仅限于在国有部门内教育程度和职业地位较高的群体。这些结果共同展示了户口身份对收入影响式微的过程,在市场部门内则尤其如是。

The household registration system (hukou) is one of the most important determinants of social stratification and mobility in China. However, the existing empirical literature is fragmented, dealing with either the economic status and social wellbeing of rural migrant workers or the impact of the selective mobility of hukou status on social stratification outcomes. Pooling the data from three CGSS surveys (2003, 2006, 2008), we integrate the study of rural-origin people's socioeconomic mobility and the role played by successful and unsuccessful hukou changes of rural status. Specifically, we differentiate those who gain urban hukou status due to the in- corporation of their villages into cities from other successful urban hukou obtainers, and compare their earnings with rural migrant workers who fail to obtain urban hukou. Linear regression results show that the commonly observed earnings premium of urban hukou is limited only to a subgroup of rural-origin people who obtain their urban hukou through a highly selective process. Propensity-score matching analyses also demonstrate that the effect of urban hukou on earnings is positively associated with the propensity of hukou conversion. The findings further show that urban hukou only pays off among people with high education and advantaged occupations in the state sector. Our research findings shed light on the relationship between mobility processes and stratification outcomes, and bear important policy implications for the reform of hukou system in the process of urbanization in China.

香港研究资助局优配基金对吴晓刚的资助(项目编号:644208)

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