China Urbanization, Land and Hukou

Professor Kam Wing Chan will speak on urbanization in China at the University of Washington.

Kam Wing Chan is Professor of Geography at UW. Over the past three years, he has continued his research on migration, labor market and urban social issues. His main research program focuses on the impact of social and political institutions on migration and urban labor market in China. At the general level, he has particularly studied how the complex and changing operations and policies of the Chinese household registration (hukou) system and its ramifications on social stratification, occupation status, population and access to urban benefits and higher education. His work also addresses the questions of inequalities, and treatment of a disadvantaged group in Chinese society. He has become one of the few experts outside China on this subject, consulted by the World Bank and various Chinese, US and Canadian government agencies. He has spearheaded the research on how this social institution affects population mobility and social segmentation in China. Many of his works are also relevant to other transitional economies.

At a more specific level, he and collaborators have subjected several hypotheses to test in China and examined the impact of the hukou system on migration, urban labor market and determinants of earnings. He has modeled the differences of hukou migration and non-hukou migration based on the microdata of Chinese Census 1990. He has also led a large field survey project in China and developed a methodology that works in the local context. To order to understand the complex labor market processes and outcomes and decision-making, the field research used a broad stratified sample survey of different migrant and non-migrant groups, combined with in-depth interviews of selected typical members in each group. Three papers have been published from this empirical work: two in top population geography journals, and one in China's flagship social science journal. More papers are being prepared. An extension of the project has led his team to focus the competition of jobs between migrants and locals. Professor Chan also continues to study and publish on the complex issues of measuring Chinese internal migration. He has served a consultant for the World Bank on this subject since 2000.