Preference for Redistribution, Poverty Perception among Chinese Migrants

Zhou Xun (1) , Michel Lubrano (2, 3)

1 NUFE - Nanjing University of Finance and Economics
2 AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques
3 School of Economics, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics

We analyse preference for redistribution and the perceived role of "circumstances" and "effort" in China within the framework of the belief in a just world hypothesis (BJW) using the 2006 CGSS. As this very rich data base does not include Dalbert questionnaire on GBJW and PBJW, we have completed the CGSS by a survey led during the COVID episode in Shanghai and Nanjing. Thanks to this new survey, we could identify the components of PBJW and GBJW inside the traditional opinion variables about the causes of poverty and the desire for redistribution of the CGSS. Using a tri-variate ordered probit model for explaining opinions, we show how treating the decision to migrate as an endogenous variable modifies the usual results of the literature concerning migrants and the effects of the Hukou status. The correlations found validate the distinction between personal BJW and general BJW, a distinction that has important policy implications for the status of migrants.

Keywords: Preference for redistribution; inequality perceptions; belief in a just world; Hukou and migrant workers; conditional correlations; binary endogenous; GHK simulator; marginal effects

Domains: Humanities and Social Sciences; Economics and Finance

Zhou Xun, Michel Lubrano. Preference for Redistribution, Poverty Perception among Chinese Migrants. 2022. ⟨hal-03886239⟩