Consumption and savings of migrants in China – social cohesion perspective

Figures & data

Figure 1. Relation between components of social cohesion in authors’ interpretation.

Source: Drawn by the author.

Table 1. Variable description.

Variable	Definition	Observations
A: 2010, 2013, 2015 and 2017
Saving rate	1-consumption/disposable income	107,216
Ln(saving)	Ln((disposable income- consumption/CPI) + 1), monthly, household	105,555
Migrant	=1 if migrant	107,572
Farmer	=1 if agricultural hukou status	100,393
Ln(real income)	Ln(household disposable income/CPI + 1), monthly, household	107,429
Family scale	Number of family members	107,572
Sex	=1 if male	107,572
Age	Age in survey year	107,572
Education	Years of education in survey year	107,572
Marriage	=1 if married	107,572
Blue collar	=1 if blue-collar workers	107,572
B: 2013
Saving rate2	1-consumption/Disposable Income (Winsorized at 5%)	21,681
Ln(income transfer)	Ln(income from hometown/CPI + 1), monthly, household	21,677
House owned	=1 if having an apartment or house in local place
Employed	=1 if employed	21,681
Youth dependency ratio	Young (of working-age population)	21,681
Old-aged dependency ratio	Elders (of working-age population)	21,681
Accident & unemployment insurance	=1 if insured	21,681
Pension insurance	=1 if insured	21,681
Health insurance	=1 if insured	21,681

Note. *, for migrant sample, the data in 2010, 2013, 2017; for local hukou population, the data in 2010, 2013.

Source: China Migrants Dynamic Survey.

Table 2. Data description.

	All		Migrant	Local hukou population	Mean difference
	Mean	Standard deviation	Mean	Mean	Migrant-local hukou population
A: 2010, 2013, 2015 and 2017
Saving rate	0.4577	0.3030	0.4854	0.3987	0.0867***
Ln(saving)	7.6104	1.4468	7.7148	7.3845	0.3303***
Migrant	0.6807	0.4662
Farmer	0.6636	0.4725	0.8196	0.2664	0.5532***
Household income in 2010 price (month)	6,724.05	9,747.27	6,691.49	6,793.45	−101.95***
Ln(real income)	8.5733	0.7138	8.5795	8.5600	0.0195
Family scale	3.1249	1.1337	3.0895	3.2004	−0.1110***
Sex	0.5040	0.5000	0.5046	0.5026	0.0020***
Age	37.4149	11.7078	35.6678	41.1391	−5.4713***
Education	10.5079	2.9697	9.9717	11.6509	−1.6792***
Marriage	0.8237	0.3811	0.8370	0.7954	0.0416***
Blue collar	0.5274	0.4992	0.6127	0.3458	0.2669***
B: 2010 and 2013
Remittance in 2010 price	5,920.54	12,020.65	6,937.43	2,538.47	4,398.96***
Ln(remittance)	6.3638	3.6560	6.6028	5.5688	1.0340***
C: 2013
Saving rate			0.510	0.453	0.057***
Saving rate2			0.512	0.461	0.051***
Age			33.255	37.829	−4.574***
Sex			0.527	0.536	−0.009***
Marriage			0.810	0.841	−0.031***
Education			10.126	12.266	−2.140***
Employed			0.910	0.770	0.140***
Ln(real income)			8.511	8.707	−0.196***
Income gotten in 2010 price			1,947.45	2,770.53	−823.08***
Ln(income transfer)			2.3045	3.9294	−1.6249***
Youth dependency ratio			0.349	0.233	0.116***
Old-aged dependency ratio			0.053	0.208	−0.155***
Household scale			3.004	3.379	−0.375***
House owned			0.087	0.837	−0.750***
Accident & unemployment insurance			0.166	0.334	−0.168***
Pension insurance			0.453	0.752	−0.299***
Health insurance			0.846	0.918	−0.072***

Note. ***, ** and * indicate significance by T test at the 1%, 5% and 10% levels, respectively.

Source: China Migrants Dynamic Survey.

Figure 2. Coefficients of migrant dummy by year. Note. the dots stand for OLS coefficients for migrant dummy by year. The lines represent the 95% confidence intervals surrounding the point estimation.

Source: China Migrants Dynamic Survey.

Table 3. OLS results of different saving behaviours between migrants and local hukou population in urban area.

	Saving rate	Saving rate	Saving rate	Ln(saving)	Ln(saving)
Dependent variable	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)
Migrant	0.0660***	0.0524***	0.0179***	0.1131***	0.2261***
	[0.0024]	[0.0026]	[0.0040]	[0.0114]	[0.0109]
Migrant × Farmer			0.0320***
			[0.0065]
Farmer			0.0288***
			[0.0053]
Ln(real income)		0.1850***	0.1870***		1.5055***
		[0.0052]	[0.0051]		[0.0101]
Family scale		−0.0265***	−0.0281***		−0.0719***
		[0.0015]	[0.0016]		[0.0047]
Sex		0.0073***	0.0055**		0.0194**
		[0.0021]	[0.0021]		[0.0087]
Age		−0.0000	0.0004***		−0.0004
		[0.0001]	[0.0001]		[0.0004]
Education		−0.0102***	−0.0074***		−0.0273***
		[0.0005]	[0.0005]		[0.0018]
Marriage		−0.0446***	−0.0439***		−0.1014***
		[0.0037]	[0.0037]		[0.0135]
Blue-collar		0.0642***	0.0630***		0.1747***
		[0.0025]	[0.0025]		[0.0099]
City FE	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Year FE	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
R^2	0.0360	0.1429	0.1437	0.0617	0.3825
Observations	107,216	107,216	100,078	105,557	105,557

Note. Robust standard errors in brackets. ***, ** and * indicate significance at the 1%, 5% and 10% levels, respectively. Constants are included for all regressions.

Source: China Migrants Dynamic Survey.

Table 4. The importance of local public service and housing.

	Saving rate					Saving rate2
Dependent variable	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)	(9)	(10)
Migrants	0.059***	0.056***	0.060***	0.027***	0.026***	0.052***	0.050***	0.054***	0.024***	0.024***
	[0.006]	[0.006]	[0.006]	[0.008]	[0.008]	[0.005]	[0.005]	[0.006]	[0.007]	[0.007]
Basic controls	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Detailed backgrounds	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
Social insurance	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
House own	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
R^2	0.191	0.195	0.191	0.195	0.201	0.181	0.185	0.182	0.185	0.190
Observations	21,681	21,681	21,681	21,681	21,681	21,681	21,681	21,681	21,681	21,681

Note. Standard errors in brackets are clustered at county level. ***, ** and * indicate significance at the 1%, 5% and 10% levels, respectively. Other variables include: Basic controls: male, age, age squared, marital status, years of education, employment status, logarithm of household income and city dummies; Detailed background: youth dependency ratio, old-aged dependency ratio, and household scale; Social insurance information: accident & unemployment insurance, pension insurance, and health insurance; Housing information: housing dummy. Constant are included for all regressions.

Source: China Migrants Dynamic Survey.

Table 5. The importance of local public service and housing with comparison between non-agricultural hukou migrants and local hukou population.

	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)
Migrants	0.041***	0.041***	0.042***	0.034***	0.034***
	[0.008]	[0.009]	[0.009]	[0.011]	[0.011]
Basic controls	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Detailed backgrounds	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
Social insurance	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
House own	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
R^2	0.223	0.226	0.224	0.224	0.227
Observations	8,661	8,661	8,661	8,661	8,661

Note. Standard errors in parentheses are clustered at county level. ***, ** and * indicate significance at the 1%, 5% and 10% levels, respectively. Control variables and other settings are the same as in Table 4.

Source: China Migrants Dynamic Survey.

Table 6. Quantile regression results of 2013 sample.

	Q (0.1)	Q (0.25)	Q (0.5)	Q (0.75)	Q (0.9)
Migrants	0.022**	0.020***	0.027***	0.028***	0.036***
	[0.008]	[0.006]	[0.005]	[0.005]	[0.005]
Basic controls	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Detailed backgrounds	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Social insurance	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Housing	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Pseudo R^2	0.110	0.117	0.109	0.103	0.096
Observations	21,618	21,618	21,618	21,618	21,618

Note. Standard errors in brackets are clustered at county level. ***, ** and * indicate significance at the 1%, 5% and 10% levels, respectively. Control variables and other settings are the same as in Table 4.

Source: China Migrants Dynamic Survey.

Figure 3. Quantile coefficients for migrant dummy. Note. the line stands for quantile coefficient for migrant dummy while the dashed line stands for OLS coefficient for migrant dummy. The dot represents the 95% confidence intervals surrounding them.

Source: China Migrants Dynamic Survey.

Table 7. OLS regression results of remittance for consumption motive.

	Saving rate	Saving rate2	Saving rate3	Saving rate4
	Migrate with Family	Migrate with Family	Removing Remittance	Removing Remittance
Migrants	0.013	0.012	0.012	−0.011
	[0.009]	[0.008]	[0.009]	[0.008]
Basic controls	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Detailed Backgrounds	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Social insurance	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Housing	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
R^2	0.236	0.221	0.190	0.182
Observations	12,049	12,049	21,681	21,681

Note. Standard errors in brackets are clustered at county level. ***, ** and * indicate significance at the 1%, 5% and 10% levels, respectively. Control variables and other settings are the same as in Table 4.

Source: China Migrants Dynamic Survey.