Return to Value Rationality, Focusing on The Reform of the Household Registration System under the Regulation of Local Government: Based on Chengdu’s “Dual-Track and Parallel” Settlement Policy

This study believes that effective local government regulation is the key to achieving successful household registration governance, that is, in the system creation and policy formulation, tool rationality returns to value rationality. The characteristics of “political people” and “economic people” in local governments encourage them to make rational decisions in the reform of the household registration system, resulting in household registration policies that are often highly directional and purposeful, making it difficult to consider development efficiency and social fairness. Chengdu’s “dual-track parallel” settlement strategy is a behavior choice for local governments to return to value rationality, reflecting Chengdu municipal government’s “social people” feature. It achieves a balance between meeting the needs of talents and building a healthy household registration proportion by correlating “conditional entry” and “integral entry.” This not only realizes the absorption of high-quality talents, but also provides settlement channels for outsiders with limited conditions.

Household Registration, Land Property Rights, and Differences in Migrants’ Settlement Intentions—A Regression Analysis in the Pearl River Delta

Objectives: Few studies have examined the impacts of structural differences in the urban–rural dichotomy under the new household registration policy on migration and settlement behavior. Nevertheless, the rationale for the settlement policy of local governments should be further elucidated and improved. This study aims to analyze the household registration, land property rights, and differences in migrants’ settlement intentions. Methods: This study used migration survey data from the Pearl River Delta and probit regression to fill this gap in the literature. Findings: Because of the long-term effects of the household registration system and their socioeconomic differences, urban-urban migrants and rural–urban migrants differed in their settlement intentions. Furthermore, the new points-based household registration system affected migrants’ settlement intentions. Relative to the rural–urban migrants, urban–urban migrants more easily met the settlement requirements under the points-based system, and they tended to settle in their current cities. By contrast, migrants with farmland in their hometowns tended to settle there. The findings underscore the relevance of adopting perspectives that consider the urban–rural dichotomy and related structural differences to understand migrants’ settlement intentions in China.

How Does New-Type Urbanization Affect the Subjective Well-Being of Urban and Rural Residents? Evidence from 28 Provinces of China

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014–2020) put forward the novel principle of “people-oriented” policy. Has the Chinese government’s plan achieved the expected results? To answer this question, the present study evaluates the impacts of New-type Urbanization on the subjective well-being (SWB) of residents. Based on the IV Ordered Probit Model and the data of Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), we determined that (1) living in cities has a positive impact on SWB, and this impact is significant at a statistical level of 1%; (2) urban household registration (hukou) has no significant impact on SWB; and (3) “Gender”, “Income”, “Job”, “Politics”, “Education”, “Marriage”, and “Health” have significant effects on SWB. To improve residents’ SWB, the government should enhance the attractiveness of the city and significantly reform the household registration system.

Effect of Urban-Rural Income Gap on the Population Peri-Urbanization Rate in China

Attracted by the urban–rural income gap (URIG), a massive agricultural transfer population has flooded into cities and became a peri-urbanized population due to the restrictions of the household registration system. This trend eventually leads to the rising population peri-urbanization rate (PPUR), which is equal to the proportion of urban resident population with rural household registration in the total residents, and seriously affects the development of new-type people-oriented urbanization. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of URIG on PPUR at the national and regional levels using the spatial exploration analysis and spatial Durbin model from the perspective of comparative economic interests. Empirical results revealed that PPUR had high spatial agglomeration, as indicated by high values in Eastern China and low values in Central and Western China. Moreover, the PPUR of most provinces in China was rising, dominated by intermediate values. At the national level, URIG promoted the increase of PPUR in the province, but inhibited the increase of PPUR in nearby provinces. Except for household registration, other control variables, such as industrial structure, fixed asset formation rate, infrastructure, medical resources and land-centered urbanization, also contributed to the PPUR in the province. At the regional level, the URIG of Central and Western China contributed to the increase of PPUR, whereas in Eastern China it inhibited the increase of PPUR. The strong correlation of URIG and PPUR calls for relevant policies for narrowing URIG and reducing PPUR.

Markets, Migrants and Institutional Change: The Dynamics of China's Changing Huji System, 1978-2007

<p>This research seeks to understand how institutions of governance are adapting to the changing conditions arising from the large scale internal migrations as a result of the growth of the market economy in China. The primary focus is explaining continuity and change in the formal institutional arrangements of the huji system over the period of study (1978-2007). During China's 'static decades' (late 1950s - late 1970s), internal migration was heavily restricted, regulated and controlled by state planning and state allocation of public resources to the point where internal migration was for most limited to political migrations. The mechanism for controlling population movements was and largely still remains the 'household registration/huji/hukou system' but since the policy of 'reform and opening', the number of people involved in spontaneous, nonsanctioned and 'outside the plan' economic migrations has grown rapidly. Most scholars agree that there are now well over 140 million nongmingong (rural workers), residing in Chinese cities without 'urban household registration'. This research acknowledges the politico-economic dynamics of this contemporary increase, specifically the reintroduction of market economics, integration into the global economy and the geopolitical dispersion of foreign capital, and seeks to investigate how huji management has been adapted to the challenge of 'temporary' residents in urban areas. Liberal economic arguments view the huji system as a hangover of the command economic functioning of central planners and an impediment to economic growth and development. However, the sustained period of rapid economic growth over the period of study suggests the role of huji management in development needs to be reconsidered. This study seeks to ascertain what role the huji system has played in this development and explain how and why it has survived and adapted this revolutionary upheaval. Data is generated from hukou statistics, laws, directives and regulations as well as migration, urbanisation and economic indicators to demonstrate the exact nature of the relationship between domestic economic development, the movement of migrants and changes in law, government policy and regulations regarding people's movement and residency. From this data the major changes are presented, including liberalisation of labour migration, some liberalisation of hukou transfer, decentralisation of hukou decision-making, and a general prioritising of the modern values of efficiency and equality, though far more the former than the latter. From these findings a model of formal institutional change in China's huji system is developed outlining a dynamic process of change that occurs due to a gap between informal institutional practices and formal institutional arrangements brought about by changing socio-economic conditions and an evolving institutional culture. The research gives us a better understanding of the dynamics of institutional change in a transitional society, contributes to institutionalist studies of change and provides well needed insight into the institutional foundations of the Chinese developmental state.</p>

Markets, Migrants and Institutional Change: The Dynamics of China's Changing Huji System, 1978-2007

<p>This research seeks to understand how institutions of governance are adapting to the changing conditions arising from the large scale internal migrations as a result of the growth of the market economy in China. The primary focus is explaining continuity and change in the formal institutional arrangements of the huji system over the period of study (1978-2007). During China's 'static decades' (late 1950s - late 1970s), internal migration was heavily restricted, regulated and controlled by state planning and state allocation of public resources to the point where internal migration was for most limited to political migrations. The mechanism for controlling population movements was and largely still remains the 'household registration/huji/hukou system' but since the policy of 'reform and opening', the number of people involved in spontaneous, nonsanctioned and 'outside the plan' economic migrations has grown rapidly. Most scholars agree that there are now well over 140 million nongmingong (rural workers), residing in Chinese cities without 'urban household registration'. This research acknowledges the politico-economic dynamics of this contemporary increase, specifically the reintroduction of market economics, integration into the global economy and the geopolitical dispersion of foreign capital, and seeks to investigate how huji management has been adapted to the challenge of 'temporary' residents in urban areas. Liberal economic arguments view the huji system as a hangover of the command economic functioning of central planners and an impediment to economic growth and development. However, the sustained period of rapid economic growth over the period of study suggests the role of huji management in development needs to be reconsidered. This study seeks to ascertain what role the huji system has played in this development and explain how and why it has survived and adapted this revolutionary upheaval. Data is generated from hukou statistics, laws, directives and regulations as well as migration, urbanisation and economic indicators to demonstrate the exact nature of the relationship between domestic economic development, the movement of migrants and changes in law, government policy and regulations regarding people's movement and residency. From this data the major changes are presented, including liberalisation of labour migration, some liberalisation of hukou transfer, decentralisation of hukou decision-making, and a general prioritising of the modern values of efficiency and equality, though far more the former than the latter. From these findings a model of formal institutional change in China's huji system is developed outlining a dynamic process of change that occurs due to a gap between informal institutional practices and formal institutional arrangements brought about by changing socio-economic conditions and an evolving institutional culture. The research gives us a better understanding of the dynamics of institutional change in a transitional society, contributes to institutionalist studies of change and provides well needed insight into the institutional foundations of the Chinese developmental state.</p>