The underdogs of the Chinese labor market - an investigating study on whether reasons behind the intention to emigrate differ across social groups

Sammanfattning: Nepotism is argued to asymmetrically channel the labor market information in China. This results in a system where networks and personal connections becomes more important than skills and individual achievements, causing discrimination in job search and eventually increased inequalities. Established social networks is essential for an individual's probability of securing a job and it is particularly important among younger workers. Recent anti-graft policies, established by the Communist Party of China (the CCP), aim to terminate such discrimination and consequently decrease the immense outflow of skilled workers that has been characterizing China for decades. So far, these efforts have had limited success. This study investigates whether reasons behind the intention to emigrate differ across social groups and aims to provide a foundation for future research on how the CCP could potentially improve its anti-graft policies by targeting these differences more efficiently. The results conclusively indicate that there is a difference in the intention to emigrate across socioeconomic groups, but whether the reasons behind the intentions differ is yet to be discovered.