Abstract:

This paper examines the process of the industrial transformation by looking at the rural migration workers in China throughout 1990s. By building up a general model of welfare effect, the authors make a careful investigation into the real facts of unilateral migration from rural to urban areas in China and seek to find the motives of this kind of labor outflows and its impact on industrial structure on provincial basis. It is evidenced that a positive relation existed in the interlacing changes of labor force as one of key factors and the industrial upgrading. Analysis is given to the institutional and sociological elements which underlined labor mobility in the primary stage and reinforcement between rural migration and industrial transformation. It is suggested that a balanced decision to be made by Chinese government and rural individuals should properly meet the public infrastructure and humanistic construction requirements for a better transformation bridge of stimulating the ongoing new approach industrialization in the country.

Keywords: rural workers, institutional segmentation, industrialization, industrial upgrading, mental compensation