Focusing on contemporary China, this project addresses two related issues that are still under-researched and are interdisciplinary in nature: “left-behind” children and “drifted” children in China. A main contributor to China’s spectacular growth is the large-scale labor migration from rural to urban China. A product of this migration is the so-called “left-behind” children in rural China and “drifted children” in urban China. These two phenomena have been serious concerns for the society and policy makers. However, somewhat surprisingly, they have received little attention in the academic literature. This project therefore explores ways to fill this gap by analyzing the issues from the perspectives of economics, sociology and educational psychology.
Selected outcomes
- Published "Does parental absence reduce cognitive achievements? Evidence from rural China. Journal of Development Economics 111, 181-195.
- Published The Impact of Open-door policy on Income Distribution in China. Social Sciences in China 230(2), 24-40.
- Hosted workshop on China’s Migration in the Process of Urbanization at Zhejiang University, December 2014.