WTO Accession, Rural Labour Migration and Urban Unemployment in China

ID:	HARP-672
Title:	WTO Accession, Rural Labour Migration and Urban Unemployment in China
Source:	Urban Studies, Vol. 39, No. 12, 2199-2217, 2002
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Year:	2002
Pages:	0
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Keywords:	China/Chinese, economic, social, and cultural rights, employment, human rights, movement and residency, reform, social security, trade, unemployment, World Trade Organization (WTO), labor market, migrants/migration
Abstract:	This paper evaluates the rural–urban migration and urban unemployment effects of China’s WTO accession based on the China–US bilateral agreement on market accession. The evaluation is conducted by a 53-sector recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of China benchmarked to a most recent version of the Chinese Social Accounting Matrix (SAM). The simulation results show that there is a great need for co-ordination between China’s rural–urban migration policy, labour market reform and the implementation of trade liberalisation measures after China’s WTO entry. The net benefit from WTO membership will be maximised if China adopts a policy gradually to relax its rural–urban migration control in conjunction with its labour market reform. Doing so not only prevents a dramatic worsening of the urban unemployment problem, but also permits enough labour market flexibility to create more employment opportunities for rural unskilled labour shifted out of the farming sector.
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