Abstract:  Although remittances in China have become one of the main income sources for rural left-behind families,few studies have dealt with its impact on household income inequality at the place of origin.Drawing on survey data from Hubei,a central province with large-scale out-migrants,this paper examines how remittances may contribute to household income inequality.The results show that remittances can reduce the income inequality across households if remittances are treated as exogenous private income transfers.When selectivity of migration is taken into account and instrumental variable is introduced to construct the counterfactual income of migrant households,however,an opposite result emerges: remittances can enlarge household income inequality in sending areas because migrants usually come from rich households.

Keywords: Labor Migration, Migrant Remittances, Counterfactual Income

摘要： 本文利用来自于农村劳动力输出大省湖北省的调研数据来考察农民工汇款对输出地家庭收入不平等的影响。研究结果表明,当我们简单将农民工汇款看成外生的转移收入时,农民工汇款能改善农村家庭的收入不平等状况。不过,当考虑到农村劳动力外出务工的选择性,并通过引入工具变量来构建那些外出劳动力户的反事实收入时,我们会得到相反的结论:由于那些外出务工劳动力往往来自于经济状况较好的家庭,农民工汇款扩大了农村家庭的收入不平等状况,家庭人均收入的基尼系数从反事实收入情形下的0.3551上升至实际收入情形下的0.3774。

关键词: 劳动力流动, 农民工, 反事实收入