Date of Award

8-23-2024

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Economics

Advisor(s)

Devashish Mitra

Second Advisor

Alexander Rothenberg

Subject Categories

Economics | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

This dissertation explores the intersection of urban economics, education, and international trade impacts in developing countries, comprising two chapters. Chapter 1 examines how internal migration affects structural transformation and intergenerational educational mobility in China using a dynamic quantitative spatial equilibrium framework. Recent decades of massive rural-urban migration have profoundly impacted China’s economy, with migrants facing dilemmas about relocating with their children—a decision that affects intergenerational educational attainment. To evaluate the welfare effects of internal migration and understand the underlying mechanisms, I develop an overlapping generations spatial equilibrium model where migrants confront children’s placement choices. Model estimation reveals that allowing all parents to migrate with their children induces structural change and increases welfare, primarily by improving educational mobility. Counterfactual analyses demonstrate that reducing migration costs narrows the overall welfare gap between skill groups, stimulates structural transformation, and significantly improves educational mobility, albeit at the cost of increased spatial inequality. The findings support relaxing migration control policies while improving rural education quality to mitigate growing inequality. Chapter 2 investigates the impact of trade liberalization on intergenerational education mobility, focusing on China’s WTO accession. The study finds that export tariff reductions have a more significant negative impact on educational outcomes for children from low-educated families compared to those from high-educated families, thus reducing intergenerational education mobility. Estimations of intergenerational education elasticity corroborate this finding. The study argues that the opportunity cost of education alone cannot fully explain these results and identifies another crucial mechanism: parents reduce time and effort invested in their children’s education to pursue new job opportunities and higher incomes, negatively affecting early childhood development.

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Open Access

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