ABSTRACT

The context of China's reforms has affected individuals in ways that go beyond agriculture, industry, finance, and management—the topics of most usual interest to economists. The main reform was economic growth, and it meant that more people changed their residences and jobs. Urbanization and migration have been salient aspects of economic development everywhere, because labor is the means by which capital wealth is accumulated. Arthur Lewis has explained the mechanism by which the capital-gathering sector grows for a long period before its prosperity begins to help most workers. Mao's state developed a political constituency of urban workers, for whom the wage markup that Lewis noted was guaranteed but low. The Maoist government set up urban residence controls and rural checks against migration. China's largest metropolis and the "green city" surrounding it provide much evidence of these trends. If migration means movement between any settlements, then most migrants in the People's Republic of China are women.