“China’s Urban Labor Market-A Structural Econometric Approach” (Kyoto University Press and Hong Kong University Press, 2013)

Yang LIU (The Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry Fellow)

I am extremely honored to be receiving such an important award, the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize. Many thanks to the directors and the selection committee members of the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Foundation, and to our respected late Prime Minister Ohira.
It is thanks to the support and encouragement of many people that I am receiving this award. I am deeply grateful to my university supervisor, Prof. Kenn Ariga, for his guidance in my academic life and suggestions on my research. Thanks also go to my colleagues and many professors who provided valuable advice on improving my work, and to my family who have always been there to encourage me.
This book looks into China’s urban labor market using the approach of modern economics, for example, by employing search theory. With the transition from a planned economy to a market-driven economy, China’s labor market has experienced great changes. Active job searching and worker recruiting, dynamic job creation and destruction, the coexistence of unemployment and labor shortages, and large-scale internal migration, together with labor movement restrictions, have characterized China’s labor market. In particular, compared to the planned economy before the 1980s, when labor was located to enterprises by the government, market characteristics have developed from the 1990s. Workers and enterprises are becoming able to adopt optimal decision-making behaviors and follow market mechanisms such as utility maximization, profit maximization and market competition.
　To examine China’s urban labor market, which possesses special characteristics as it proceeds towards a market-driven economy, this book makes use of two mainstream approaches: the labor supply and demand approach, and the search-theoretic approach. The issues tackled in this book include the reason for the coexistence of a high unemployment rate and a high job vacancy rate in urban China, the impact of rural-urban migration on the urban labor market, and so on. By using international research methods and the English language, hopefully this book will draw more attention to China’s labor market.
Whilst conducting my research and finishing this book, I received much financial support over the past few years. I would like to thank the Ushio Foundation, the Japanese government scholarship (Kokuhi), and the President’s Discretionary Budget of Kyoto University, for their generous support. Last but not the least, I thank all my colleagues at RIETI for the enjoyable and encouraging days spent working together, the Asia Pacific Institute of Research for enabling me to take the first and important step in my career, and the editors at Kyoto University Press and Hong Kong University Press for their hard work on refereeing and publishing this book.
This award, the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize, will be a great encouragement to me during the next stage of my research. Thank you very much.

Profile
Year of birth: 1984
Place of birth: Shandong Province, China
2002-2006 Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
2007-2009 Graduate School of Economics, Kyoto University, M.S. in Economics
2009-2012 Graduate School of Economics, Kyoto University, Doctor of Economics
2011-2012 Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Research Institute, Research Assistant (part-time)
2012-2014 Asia Pacific Institute of Research, Researcher
2012-present, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University, invited research fellow
2014-present, The Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI), Fellow