25-26 June 2022, the Chinese Economists Society 2022 Annual Conference was held online. The theme of this conference is “Big Data, AI and Economic Development: Merging Economics with Management”. About 500 researchers, students, and others interested individuals attended the conference.
Dr. Yunli Bai, the UNEP-IEMP member, held a parallel session titled “Off-farm employment and family welfare in rural China”. Dr. Chengfang Liu, Deputy Dean and Boya Chair Professor at School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences of Peking University and Dr. Xu Tian, Professor of China Agricultural University were invited as discussants. Four papers from various research team were presented at this parallel session.
Dr. Ye Jiang, from South China Agricultural University, reported the paper on “The long-term impact of labor market entry conditions on rural-urban migrant’s income and career development: Evidence from nationally representative long panel dataset”. Dr. Jiang analyzed the long-term effects of labor market entry conditions on rural urban migrants’ earnings and their career outcomes since 1978 and explored the heterogeneity on skills. Dr. Weidong Wang, from Beijing Forestry University, presented the paper on “Off-farm self-employment in China’s rural labor market”. Dr. Wang elaborated the evolution of off-farm self-employment in rural China and analyzed the entrepreneurship of off-farm self-employment in rural labor. Zhiyuan Ma, Ph.D Candidate of UNEP-IEMP, shared the paper on “Education-occupation matching, employment stability and wage of rural labor in China”. Ms. Ma investigated the association between education-occupation matching and the wage of rural labor and identified the role of employment stability in this association. Dr. Shaoping Li, from Huzhou University showed the paper on “Migration and perceived returns to education”. Dr. Li analyzed perceived returns to education in rural China and estimated the effect of migration on perceived returns to education.
The experts proposed detailed and valuable suggestions and comments from the perspective of research topic, perspective, approaches and conclusions. The fantastic reports and expert comments attracted nearly 50 researchers and students to participate and discuss online. The members of UNEP-IEMP expanded their research perspectives and improved their academic and communication ability by organizing, hosting and participating in this parallel session.
