Wednesday, March 5, 2014 | 2:00pm - 3:30pm | Room 231, HSBC Business School Building

Abstract

We study urban Chinese employers’ preferences between workers with and without a local residence permit (hukou) using information on which applicants receive employer contacts on an Internet job board in the city of Xiamen.  We find that employers prefer migrant workers to locals who are identically matched to the job’s requirements.   Employers’ preferences for non-local workers are especially strong at low skill levels.  We argue that migrants’ higher levels of work hours and effort play a role in explaining these differences.