Chinese population migration under ‘Made in China’: 2000–2015

Utilizing data from China’s population census, we construct a city-level Shift-share IV to capture the demand-side shock from the rest of the world in the trade liberalization and explore the impact of China’s export expansion on domestic population migration in the long run. The findings indicate that export expansion due to the demand-side shock attracts more population inflows, which means that people primarily migrate from developing regions to the developed eastern and southeastern cities with more exports. Meanwhile, there is also a tendency for the workforce to move to adjacent cities for more employment, high wage levels, good education, and healthcare services. The migration is mainly driven by the low-end industries and their exports to the developed economies, so rural household registrants and low-skilled workers are the main sources of migration in China from 2000 to 2015.