Semi-Proletarianization in a Dual Economy: The Case of China

This paper proposes a model to explain the wage increase for migrant workers in China since the mid-2000s. First, the model consists of a capitalist sector and a non-capitalist sector. Second, households are semi-proletarianized because they participate in both family farming and wage production. Th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Review of radical political economics Vol. 51; no. 4; pp. 553 - 561
Main Author Qi, Hao
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.12.2019
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Capitalism
Classification
Dualistic economy
Family farms
Farming
Households
Migrant workers
Proletarianization
China
migrant workers
semi-proletarianization
dual economy
China’s economy
labor extraction
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Summary:This paper proposes a model to explain the wage increase for migrant workers in China since the mid-2000s. First, the model consists of a capitalist sector and a non-capitalist sector. Second, households are semi-proletarianized because they participate in both family farming and wage production. Third, capitalist firms determine the wage level in order to extract labor. The paper demonstrates that semi-proletarianization is one of the three stages of the long-term dynamics of a dual economy like China. In so doing, it provides an alternative to the Lewis turning point literature. JEL Classification: B51, O53, E24
ISSN:0486-6134
1552-8502
DOI:10.1177/0486613419853876