Networks and Misallocation: Insurance, Migration, and the Rural-Urban Wage Gap
基于印度种姓网络提供的消费平滑与迁移收入增长之间的权衡，解释了城乡工资差距大、男性迁移率低的现象，并验证了家庭财富和收入风险对迁移决策的影响。
We provide an explanation for the large spatial wage disparities and low male migration in India based on the trade-off between consumption smoothing, provided by caste-based rural insurance networks, and the income gains from migration. Our theory generates two key empirically verified predictions: (i) males in relatively wealthy households within a caste who benefit less from the redistributive (surplus-maximizing) network will be more likely to migrate, and (ii) males in households facing greater rural income risk (who benefit more from the insurance network) migrate less. Structural estimates show that small improvements in formal insurance decrease the spatial misallocation of labor by substantially increasing migration.