SMU SOE Seminar (Aug 10, 2018): Entrepreneurship and Co-Villager Networks of Internal Migrants in China

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TOPIC:

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND CO-VILLAGER NETWORKS OF INTERNAL MIGRANTS IN CHINA

ABSTRACT Internal migrants consist of a large share of the labor market in China. However, insufficient attention has been paid to the heterogeneity of internal migrants, particularly regarding their industry choices as well as their decisions of starting a business upon migration. Employing a unique nationwide survey data, we find that internal migrants are more likely to become entrepreneurs in certain industries if their co-villegers are also entrepreneurs in these industries. Therefore, we observe industry concentration among self-employed migrants. For example, migrants from Sichuan concentrate in the construction industry and those from Zhejiang concentrate in the wholesale and retail industry. We apply the spatial autoregressive (SAR) linear probability model and the SAR logit model to investigate the co-villager network effects on migrants’ self-employing decision in three large industries that cover around 65 percent of the self-employed observations, wholesale and retail, lodging and catering as well as construction. Mimicking dominates in both wholesale and retail, and construction industries with significantly positive network effects. This may due to information sharing, such as tactics of running a business, certain channels of product supply, changes of market demand, etc. However, competition dominates in lodging and catering industry with significantly negative network effects. Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Co-Villager Network, Spatial Autoregressive Model, Internal Migrants JEL Codes: R23; C21; L26 Click here to view the paper. Click here to view the CV.
		PRESENTER Ying Deng University of International Business and Economics, Beijing
		RESEARCH FIELDS Theoretical Econometrics Applied Econometrics
		DATE: 10 August 2018 (Friday)
		TIME: 4pm - 5.30pm
		VENUE: Meeting Room 5.1, Level 5 School of Economics Singapore Management University 90 Stamford Road Singapore 178903

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