Unskilled Migration and Vertical Disintegration: Theory and Evidence from China
研究中国农村向城市移民如何影响企业垂直解体，发现非技能移民流入增加城市企业产出，因规模报酬递减导致企业更倾向于垂直解体，并提高城市技能工人相对工资。
This paper studies how rural-urban migration in China affects the vertical disintegration of firms. We construct a theoretical model and find that the inflow of rural migrants increases the output of firms in urban areas. This leads to a higher degree of vertical disintegration of firms due to the decreasing returns to scale. We also find that the wage of skilled workers relative to that of unskilled workers in urban areas is increased with rural migrants as the vast majority of rural migrants are unskilled. Our empirical findings are consistent with our model predictions using China’s population census and manufacturing firm-level data in 2005.