移民多样性与城市经济发展

Immigrant Diversity and Urban Economic Development

中国的广袤疆域孕育了各地迥异的文化习俗,当移民走出“熟人社会”向城市汇聚,移民多样性就会对城市发展产生影响。关于移民多样性与经济发展的关系,是迁移经济学的一个新兴话题。本文利用全国流动人口动态监测调查数据,依据移民户籍地个体信息构建了移民多样性指标,实证检验移民多样性对城市经济发展的效应和机制。研究发现,移民多样性显著促进了城市经济发展。机制检验表明,尽管移民多样性会降低城市人际间信任水平,但由于移民多样性有助于形成劳动力技能互补,提高了城市的劳动生产率和创新水平,因而对经济发展的综合影响是正向效应。异质性分析表明,在东中部以及人口流入占比高的城市中,移民多样性促进经济发展的效应尤为明显。本文研究结果从经验上揭示了移民多样性的潜在经济红利,为当今“流动的中国”背景下如何更好地激发城市经济活力提供了有益的政策洞见。

As migrants from different cultural practices enter cities, how migrant diversity affects urban economic development draws discussions in migration economics. Based on the dynamic monitoring data of the floating population in China, this paper constructs the diversity index and empirically tests the effect of the migration diversity on urban economic development. The findings are as follows: firstly, the diversity of migrants significantly promotes the development of urban economy. Secondly, mechanism test shows that although the diversity of migrants reduces the level of interpersonal trust in cities, it contributes to the formation of skill complementarities and increases labor productivity and innovation in cities. Therefore, the comprehensive impact on economic development is still positive. Thirdly, heterogeneity analysis shows that the effect of diversity on economic development is especially significant in the central and east cities and cities with high proportion of migrants. These results empirically disclose the potential economic dividends of migration diversity and provide useful policy insights on how to better stimulate urban economic vitality in the context of contemporary “mobile China”.